A deputy minister who said that there was a new militant group in Malaysia similar to the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) extremist group has issued a clarification today.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar said the group he mentioned yesterday was a religious deviationist sect and not a militant group as reported in the newspapers today.

"The group is a sect and not militant, and it has no connection with the KMM (the Malaysian Mujahidin Group) or JI," he told national news agency Bernama today.

"I hope there will be no misunderstanding that a new militant group has surfaced in Malaysia... What I said (to reporters) was that a group was being investigated and whether it was necessary to act against it by using the Internal Security Act (ISA)," Noh noted.

Noh shocked

The deputy minister said he had to issue the clarification after he was shocked to see newspaper headlines today on the emergence of a 'new militant group'.

He also received many calls from various parties, including the foreign media, who wanted him to elaborate on his statement yesterday.

Noh said he had also explained the matter to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak who had commented on the matter earlier today in Bentong, Pahang.

Najib, who is also defence minister, was quoted in a Bernama report as saying the police were gathering intelligence and monitoring the activities of the group.

"I'm unable to say much about the matter since it is still being investigated," he said.

The deputy premier's comment was posted today in the Bernama website titled 'Najib says new militant group still under investigation'.

Ignore report

However at 7pm, Bernama sent a 'urgent message' to the editors - at the request of the deputy prime minister's office - to ignore the report.

The embarrassing posting on its website has since been removed.

Malaysia is holding more than 90 alleged Muslim militants under the ISA, which allows detention without trial.

Many of them are suspected members of JI, which has been blamed for a string of attacks including the 2002 Bali bombing which killed 202 people.