Hizb ut-Tahrir suspects rounded up from 23 cities
Turkish police detained nearly 200 people suspected of being members of the outlawed Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir, Party of Liberation, in a series of raids across the country, the state-run news agency Anatolian said on Friday.
Simultaneous crackdowns in 23 provinces across Turkey took place early Friday and police reportedly confiscated a number of documents linking the suspects to the Islamist group.
Founded in 1953, Hizb ut-Tahrir has sought to unite Muslims into a pan-Islamic state but has claimed its means are peaceful. Uzbekistan blames the group for bombings in the capital in 2004, an accusation the London-based group denies.
Turkey has in the past raided Hizb ut-Tahrir and other Islamist groups, including al-Qaeda, believed to operate in predominantly Muslim Turkey. The group is banned in many countries across the world.