Dutch police had arrested a Pakistani man, who they said was linked to a network of extremists that was largely dismantled after raids in Barcelona this January, they said on Friday. The 26-year-old suspect was picked up late on Thursday in the south-western Dutch town of Breda, the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.The Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcabsur said when the group was broken up that it was on the verge of “violent action”, as materials for manufacturing explosive devices were found in the Barcelona raids. The attacks would be claimed in the name of Al-Qaeda by warlord Baitullah Mehsud from Pakistan’s Tribal Areas, the media reported.
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.