A total of 62 current and former employees of the Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST) have been detained over links to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which perpetrated the July 15 coup attempt.
Prosecutors ordered the detention of 102 people as part of the ongoing probe into FETÖ, and Istanbul-based operations were launched Friday in six different provinces.
Some 110 addresses in the cities of Istanbul, Giresun, Balıkesir, Kayseri, Bursa and Ankara were searched by police units.
Some of the 62 suspects reportedly opened accounts with the FETÖ-affiliated Bank Asya back in 2013 and 2014, upon receiving instructions from the group's U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gülen.
The bank's license was canceled on July 22, 2016, seven days after the failed coup bid, by Turkey's Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK). The banking watchdog had ruled for the complete takeover of all shares of Bank Asya by the state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund in May 2015.
Meanwhile 16 people, who were either administrative or teaching staff at FETÖ-affiliated schools, were arrested in a separate series of operations also on Friday, a police source in Ankara said.
The simultaneous raids were carried out as part of a probe into the closed schools, led by Ankara Gölbaşı Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
The suspects were arrested in Ankara-based operations in 12 provinces.
They are accused of using ByLock, banking with Bank Asya, as well as having links with FETÖ's "top management."
The ByLock smartphone app is believed to have been cracked by Turkish security agencies months before the coup, allowing them to identify tens of thousands of apparent FETÖ supporters.
Operations are ongoing to arrest the remaining 22 suspects, while the other four are known to have fled abroad, the source added.
Tens of thousands of people tied to FETÖ have been dismissed or suspended from duty in the private and public sector since the coup while hundreds are being arrested for their involvement in the coup and participating in the crimes of FETÖ.
Led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gülen, a former preacher, the terrorist group managed to infiltrate the law enforcement, judiciary, bureaucracy and military over the past four decades before it openly threatened the government with two coup attempts in 2013.