AFP/Bangladesh

Bangladesh police yesterday said they have arrested two suspected militants whom they accused of planning to set up an Al Qaeda branch in the Muslim-majority country.

Detectives raided several properties in the Bangladesh capital, arresting five militants, including two members of a little-known local hardline group, a Dhaka police spokesman said.

The two admitted during questioning to planning “to set up an Al Qaeda network” in Bangladesh, spokesman Monirul Islam told reporters.

The arrests come after Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri announced earlier this month plans to launch a South Asian branch of the militant network.

Asif Adnan, 24, and Fazle Elahi Tanzil, 26, were members of the local Ansarullah Bangla Team, blamed for the murder last year of a blogger.

Several banned militant groups operate in Bangladesh and have been blamed for a series of deadly attacks since the late 1990s. But none of them have been linked to Al Qaeda.

Police said local militants have been motivated by Al Qaeda’s announcement of the new branch, which it said would “wage a war” in South Asia.

They have also been spurred by a Bangladeshi-origin British resident whom police were attempting to find after his arrival in the country recently “with a mission to strengthen the Al Qaeda network” here.

“The arrested persons admitted that they are preparing to wage war under his (the British resident’s) leadership,” a Dhaka police statement said.

Police released text messages between Adnan and Tanzil which said: “It depends on the directives of AQIS (Al Qaeda in Indian sub-continent) and Nusra (an Al Qaeda inspired group in Syria).

In a separate operation, police arrested three militants of the banned Harkat ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) group and seized bomb-making equipment and a remote-controlled device.