Turkish police launched a large scale operation across Turkey to detain a total of 121 former foreign ministry officials over their suspected ties to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), Daily Sabah reported.

Counter-terrorism police squads began simultaneous raids in 30 provinces to capture the suspects who were previously dismissed, some of whom were believed to be users of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app used solely by the terrorist group.

FETÖ, which poses as a religious charity, runs a global network of companies and schools. In 2013, its infiltrators tried to topple Turkey's government by detaining figures close to the government under the guise of an anti-graft probe.

When it failed, the group moved to seize power through its infiltrators in every rank of the army on July 15, 2016. However, this attempt failed as well after the public resisted the bid in an unprecedented move.

A total of 249 people were killed and hundreds were injured in the insurrection attempt. Since then, thousands of people linked to the terrorist group have been arrested or detained, and trials on the coup attempt are still underway.

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