  We present results from a spectroscopically blind search for HI 21-cm and OH
18-cm absorption lines at 2 < z < 5 towards 88 AGNs with 1.4GHz spectral
luminosity of 27 - 29.3 W/Hz. One 21-cm absorber, which is associated with
M1540-1453 at $z_{abs}$ = 2.1139, is detected. This is only the fourth known
associated absorption at $z>2$. The detection rate ($1.6^{+3.8}_{-1.4}$%)
suggests low covering factor of cold neutral medium (CNM; T~100K) associated
with these powerful AGNs. The intervening HI 21-cm and OH 18-cm absorption
searches, with a sensitivity to detect CNM in damped Ly-alpha systems (DLAs),
have comoving absorption path lengths of $\Delta$X = 130.1 and 167.7,
respectively. Using these we estimate the number of HI and OH absorber per unit
comoving path lengths to be <0.014 and <0.011, respectively. The former is at
least 4.5 times lower than that of DLAs and consistent with the CNM
cross-section estimated using H$_2$ and CI absorbers at z>2. The AGNs in our
sample selected using mid-infrared colors are optically fainter compared to the
optical- and radio-selected quasars used to search for DLAs. In our optical
spectra obtained using SALT and NOT, we detect 5 DLAs (redshift path ~9.3) and
2 proximate DLAs (within 3000 km/s of the AGN redshift). This is slightly
excessive compared to the statistics based on optically selected quasars. The
non-detection of HI 21-cm absorption from these DLAs suggests small CNM
covering fraction around galaxies at z>2.
