The Hague: Dutch police have arrested a Pakistani man who they say is linked to a network of Islamic extremists which was largely dismantled after raids in Barcelona this January, they said today.   

The 26-year-old suspect was picked up yesterday in the southwestern Dutch town of Breda, the public prosecutor's office said in a statement.   

The detainee was "suspected of belonging to a global jihadist network which prepares attacks in western Europe," the statement said. The attacks would be claimed in the name of al-Qaeda by Islamist warlord Baitullah Mehsud from Pakistan's tribal region of South Waziristan, they reported.   

Mehsud is accused by Pakistani officials and the US Central Intelligence Agency of orchestrating former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto's killing in a gun and suicide bomb attack at a political rally on December 27. He has denied any involvement.   

The group had also been planning suicide attacks in France, Portugal, Germany and Britain, the Dutch authorities 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.   

The authorities said there was no information that the man was planning an attack in the Netherlands.

He will appear before a Dutch judge Monday who will decide if he must remain in custody while the investigation continues.

Source : PTI