ANKARA, Oct 24 — Turkey has detained a Swedish man over suspected links to Kurdish militants in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, state media reported.

The 46-year-old man is accused of being a regional leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Sweden, state-run news agency Anadolu said late Tuesday.

The agency said the man, identified only by the initials H.B., had also taken a photograph in front of an image of PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence on an island off Istanbul.

The Swedish citizen was detained as part of an operation coordinated by the Diyarbakir prosecutor working with the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) and security forces after he had allegedly come to Turkey for secret meetings with PKK-linked individuals.

The PKK has been waging an insurgency in Turkey since 1984. Fighting intensified in 2015 after the collapse of a two-year ceasefire.

The PKK is also blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies. — AFP