ANKARA (AFP) – Police rounded up 26 people nationwide yesterday and investigated whether they were linked to an alleged plot to topple Turkey’s Islamist-rooted government, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Earlier media reports said the arrests were part of a widening investigation into Ergenekon, a shadowy gang of secularist ultranationalists opposed to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

But a senior police official said investigators had yet to establish a definite link.

“Everything will become clear once the four-day questioning of the suspects is over,” Salih Tuzcu, the police chief of the central city of Konya, where most of the suspects were detained, told Anatolia.

He described the arrests as an “operation against a terrorist organization,” but gave no details.

Apart from Konya, police detained suspects in Istanbul, neighboring Kocaeli, Mersin on the Mediterranean coast and Elazig in the east, Anatolia said.

The investigation into Ergenekon has raised tensions in Turkey and widened the rift between Erdogan’s supporters and secularists who accuse the government of using the probe to intimidate opponents.

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party risks being outlawed for undermining Turkey’s secular system in a case the Constitutional Court will start debating Monday.

Prosecutors have so far brought terrorism-related charges against 86 people in connection with Ergenekon, while 10 others, including two retired four-star generals, are awaiting charges in prison.

The indictment against the 86 suspects, which still needs court approval before the case can be tried, includes charges of creating an “armed terrorist organization,” attempting to use violence to topple the government and provoking an armed uprising.