Malaysia said Monday that it would review the ban on the ethnic Indian outfit Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), if the group appealed to the Home Ministry to this effect, reports say.
"If they (Hindraf) want us to reconsider the status, they have to make an appeal. When they do make the appeal, I will reconsider the status," Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein told reporters.
He was responding to a query about Hindraf's status after authorities released 13 persons, including five leaders (all of Tamil descent) of the Hindu rights group, held for over a year under the country's tough Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows indefinite detention without trial of persons considered to be a threat to national security.
Presently, the ban status remained on Hindraf, Hishammuddin said, adding the government had tried to be fair by releasing the leaders, as they were no more a threat to the country and that they should be fair in their actions in future.
On the statement of Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy that he wanted to return to Malaysia from self-imposed exile in London, the home minister said he would not speculate on Waythamoorthy's status, but that the ministry would review his application, if he had made one.
About the statement of Hindraf's another leader M Manoharan that he would file a suit against the Federal Government, the home minister and others over his detention, Hishammuddin said "it is his right."
Manoharan, who was freed during the week-end, termed his 17-month detention as unlawful, and asserted he was filing a 100 million-ringgit suit against the Federal Government, the home minister and others.
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