Some 35 unidentified assailants armed with Molotov cocktails attacked a commune housing a controversial religious sect in Terengganu early this morning, a lawyer for the sect said.

No one was hurt in the attack on the commune, home to around 200 followers of Ariffin Mohammad, a 65-year-old illiterate Malay man, better known as Ayah Pin, who claims he is God.

"I got a call from Ayah Pin's spokesman Rosli Abdul Samad that some 30 to 35 people armed with machetes and dressed in Arab robes with their faces covered threw Molotov cocktails and burned tyres inside the settlement," Haris Mohamad Ibrahim, a lawyer, told AFP .

Haris represents 21 members of the Ayah Pin sect who were arrested earlier this month for allegedly possessing documents contrary to Islam.

He urged police to ensure the security of the commune and the safety of its members. "I hope the government will condemn the attack on the commune by these militants," he said.

Local fire department deputy chief Mazlan Hashim said fires destroyed a vehicle and caused damage to other buildings.

"The residents managed to put out the fire before the firemen arrived," he told AFP .

Police in Terengganu declined to comment and the cult members could not be reached by telephone.

The sect has had run-ins with the authorities in the past, with four members being jailed for two years in 1998 for attempting to renounce Islam.

Security threat

Recently there has been mounting pressure on the government to detain Ayah Pin and destroy the compound.

In remarks published Monday in the Utusan Malaysia newspaper, Abdul Hamid Othman, religious adviser to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said Ayah Pin was a threat to national security and should be detained.

"Of course he must be arrested because his influence will jeopardise not only religion but also political stability," he said.

The group does not have any religious scriptures of its own and members are free to follow any religion they want.

The issue of religion in mainly Muslim Malaysia is sensitive, especially when Muslims renounce Islam. The government is always on the lookout for what it calls deviant sects.

The opposition fundamentalist Islamic party PAS, which ruled Terengganu state until last year, attempted to shut down the village in 2000, but Ayah Pin's followers obtained a court order to keep it open.