Malaysia has detained ten people, nine of them foreigners, suspected of links with international militant groups, the country's home minister said on Wednesday.                                            The men were detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) which allows police to hold suspects for an indefinite period without trial.                                             
"We have worked with foreign intelligence organisations in this operation. All ten are involved in international terrorism," Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters. He did not give more details of the operation.                                             
Earlier, an advocacy group fighting for the abolition of the colonial-era ISA, said that 50 people had been initially detained under the law, but later 38 were released.                                             
Malaysia has in the past deployed the ISA against suspected members of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah group whose prominent leaders include a number of Malaysians.                                            The Southeast Asian country has been spared from a militant attack, but an insurgency in southern Thailand on its border could affect its security if it starts to draw sympathy from Malaysians for the ethnic Malay fighters.                                            
The multi-ethnic country, in recent weeks, has also faced religious tensions ignited by the use of the word "Allah" by Christians to denote their god in Malay language publications. Churches, a Catholic school, a Sikh temple and mosques have been hit by arson or vandalism.