12,800 police officers suspended

Turkish authorities on Tuesday suspended some 12,800 police officers from duty over their suspected links to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen as Turkey pressed ahead with its vast crackdown on a network it says is behind the country’s July 15 failed military coup. In a brief statement posted on its website, the Turkish police headquarters said those suspended were allegedly “in cohesion with or connected to” Gulen’s movement. It said 2,523 of them were police chiefs. The move comes a day after the Cabinet extended by a further 3 months a state of emergency declared after the coup.