THE HAGUE, March 14: Dutch police have arrested a Pakistani man who they say is linked to a jihadist network which was largely dismantled after raids in Barcelona this January.

The 26-year-old suspect was picked up late Thursday in the south-western Dutch town of Breda, the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Friday.

The detainee was “suspected of belonging to a global jihadist network which prepares attacks in western Europe”, the statement said.

The police had been investigating the suspect, who was not identified by name, since late January acting on information of the security services here.

He was under 24-hour observation by police and was finally arrested “to prevent terrorist activities”, the prosecutor’s office said.

The suspect, who had been in the Netherlands since September 2007, was enrolled as a student but mostly worked as a house painter. —AFP