Arrests warrants have been issued for a total of 72 people, including several academics at Istanbul’s Bogazici and Medeniyet universities, in a crackdown suspected of links to the US-based based cleric Fethullah Gulen, Hurriyet Daily News reported on July 10.

Among the 42 people who have already been detained is Koray Caliskan, a well-known political scientist at the country’s prestigious Bogazici University.

According to the newspaper, those, who were detained, had used ByLock, an encrypted messaging application said to have been used by followers of Gulen for internal communication.

The government maintains that Gulen and his supporters were behind the failed coup attempt last year. Nearly 50,000 people have been arrested and 120,000 have been dismissed while 965 companies with assets of around TRY 41bn ($11.3bn) have been seized over alleged links to the coup plotters.

Separately, the Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office has issued detention warrants for some 43 people in the prime ministry and its related institutions on July 10 as part of the ongoing investigation into the Gulenist network, Hurriyet Daily News reported. Six of those who the police seek to arrest are currently on duty, while 37 of the suspects were previously dismissed from duty at the prime ministry, according to the newspaper.

The latest detentions came only a day after Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition CHP, held a massive rally in Istanbul, concluding his three-week long “Justice March”, signalling that the government is not likely to end its crackdown on the Gulenist network.

Turkey’s Western allies criticise what they describe as a harsh and disproportionate response to the coup attempt, but the Ankara government says that such measures are necessary and that European leaders fail to understand the grave threats the Gulenists pose to the country’s national security.