DHAKA: Bangladesh has arrested a suspected Pakistani militant and four of its own nationals who planned to carry out attacks in the country, a spokesman for the elite force that made the arrests said today.

Commander Mohammad Sohel of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said the five, aged between 26 and 30, were members of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group blamed for terrorist attacks in India.

“They were picked up from a market in the capital Dhaka. The Pakistani citizen and four Bangladeshis have admitted of being the members of Jaish-e-Mohammad and they were planning attacks in the country,” he said. One of the four Bangladeshis has served 10 years in prison in India, he added. In November three Pakistani men were arrested in Dhaka on suspicion of plotting to attack US and Indian targets in the Bangladeshi capital.

Bangladesh has not witnessed any major attacks by Islamic militants since 2005, when a series of bombings shook the world’s fourth largest mainly Muslim country.