Detention of 5 Malay Indians extended

Kuala Lumpur: Five activists of a Hindu rights group, including one elected to Parliament while in jail, will continue to be in detention under a tough security law for having organised an "illegal" mass rally of ethnic Indians complaining of racial inequality, Malaysian authorities said.

Full coverage: Ethnic Indians vs Malaysian govt

The decision to continue the detention of the five members of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) was taken by an advisory board, which reviews cases of detention every three or six months, Home Minister Syed Hamid said.

The board found that the views of the five Hindraf activists, detained since December 2007 after they organised the rally of more than 20,000 people on November 25 despite government declaring it "illegal", remained unchanged, New Straits Times reported.

Thus, the board recommended to the ministry that the detention order of the five in Kamunting be extended, Syed Hamid was quoted as saying.

The five Hindraf members -- P Uthayakumar, M Manoharan, K Vasantha Kumar, V Ganabatirau and R Kengadharan -- are among 62 people held under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) at the Kamunting detention centre.

Manoharan, a lawyer, contested the March 8 poll on an opposition party ticket and won his seat despite being jailed throughout the election campaign.

After visiting the detention centre situated outside Kuala Lumpur, Syed Hamid on Saturday said Hindraf was an extremist group because it was not registered, the paper reported.

The minister noted that action under the ISA would be taken against those who threatened national security and public order, and also against those who caused chaos and economic sabotage, the paper said.

"Charging someone in court will mean putting all the evidence and testimony in the open. To avoid exposing intelligence-based information, we will detain a person under the ISA," he was quoted as saying.

During his visit to the detention centre, the minister met Hindraf leaders Manoharan, Vasantha Kumar and Ganabatirau. The paper said when the minister had suggested that their release would continue to cause public disturbance, the three did not agree.

The minister did not meet Uthayakumar, the brother of Hindraf Chairman P Wayathamoorthy, or Kengadharan. He said the former did not mix much with anyone, while the latter was with his family members who had come for a visit.

For more news, analysis | Get more Political news | Catch all World news