Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's maiden visit to India has set the South Asian nation's cyberspace ablaze with comments, with most airing displeasure over his 'missing' Indians remark.

NONE Najib will also be the first Malaysian prime minister since Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1983 to set foot in Tamil Nadu during his three-day trip which ends Saturday.

On the internet, Indian websites were abuzz with comments, the majority of which touched on the case of 39,000 Indian nationals ‘missing’ in Malaysia.

At a press meet with Indian journalists in Putrajaya before his official trip, Najib expressed concern that 39,046 Indians who came to Malaysia with a tourist visa had subsequently disappeared from the immigration radar.

“These people who came to Malaysia through the ‘visa-on-arrival’ facility could be back in India or be among the people here... (maybe) working in Indian restaurants,” he said.

According to him, this is the main reason why the immigration department is not keen on extending the ‘visa on arrival’ facility for those coming from Tamil Nadu.

'What about the Indonesians?'

In the news site NewKerala.com , numerous commentators vented their frustration over this issue with one of them, Anthony from Sanaa, Yemen, asking, "What about the Indonesians?"

Another comment by a Singaporean pinned the blame on the paltry wages of immigration personnel in Malaysia.

"They are not deporting illegal immigrants because it will dent their income," he said.

Similar comments also appeared in prominent Tamil news portals such as Dhinamalar.com and Dhinamani.com .

A commentator by the name M Amanullah from Dubai wrote that Indians should leave Malaysia to teach the government a lesson.

He added that the 30,000 'missing' Indians "are not hiding in the jungle" but working in various industries and they should not be hard to locate.