It has been seven days since they had anything to eat but despite this the hunger strikers at the PAS headquarters in Gombak, Selangor today expressed their determination to continue.

Last Wednesday, 15 people decided to go on a hunger strike in support of the six Internal Security Act detainees who are staging a similar strike at the Kamunting Detention Centre in Perak.

However, only 11 remain today. Three quit due to health reasons while another had to return to his hometown.

Two canopies have been erected outside the PAS building: one shelters the hunger strikers who rest on mats amid flowers from supporters. The second canopy is filled with posters of the detainees and magazine covers depicting jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.

Among those continuing to hunger strike are 19-year-old Muthanah Saari, the son of detained Keadilan leader Saari Sungib, and 60-year-old DAP member from Pahang, Tuw Ah Mei.

Muthanah said he had collapsed twice over the weekend but is determined to go on until his body cannot take it any more.

I am doing this for my father and the rest of his friends who are in the Kamunting Detention Centre with him and so that they may either be freed or be tried in open court, said the computer science student.

Muthanahs father and five others, Keadilan leaders Tian Chua, Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor, Dr Badrulamin Bahron, Lokman Noor Adam and malaysiakini columnist-cum-filmmaker are serving a two-year detention order for allegedly wanting to overthrow the government via militancy.

The six started a hunger strike last Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of their detention and are demanding that they be released or charged in court.

For the people

Meanwhile, Tuw also declared that she will continue hunger striking until all the six detainees are released.

So many innocent people have been put under the ISA and I am really frustrated at the government. I am doing this for the people of Malaysia.

And if I die in the process, I want my body to be placed outside Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamads house in Putrajaya, she said.

The hunger strikers were visited by the Counsellor from the Canadian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, Leslie James, PAS central committee member Mohamad Sabu and party Youth chief Mahfuz Omar this morning.

In a related development, DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang today called on Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to visit the six detainees.

Abdullah should visit the hunger strikers in Kamunting and the Cabinet should establish a high-powered task force to resolve the hunger strike by giving serious consideration to the protestors demands, he said in a press statement.