Bangladesh has arrested a suspected Pakistani militant and four of its own nationals who planned to carry out attacks in the country.

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 on Sunday.
 
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 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 ten 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 militants since 2005, when a series of bombings shook the world’s fourth largest mainly Muslim country.

Since then, the RAB has arrested hundreds of members of militant outfits.

At least six top militants have been executed and scores more sentenced to life terms.