Sixteen Orang Asli activists, a journalist and a videographer from Singapore's Channel News Asia, were the latest to be detained by the Kelantan Forestry Department over anti-logging blockades in the interiors of Gua Musang.

Orang Asli activist Mustafa Along, 29, who was detained together with his colleagues at the blockade site, said the incident took place at 9am today.

"The Forestry Department officers arrived at the site and began to tear down the blockade, together with 19 houses.

"Sixteen of us, 15 males and one female, were kept at the site. We were detained until noon," Mustafa told Malaysiakini when contacted.

"The journalists were handcuffed. An officer later removed their handcuffs so they could sign the documents to (allow the officer to) confiscate their equipment," he said.

"By 11am, they were taken to Gua Musang. The officers who continued to destroy the blockade only released us by noon. We are now walking back to our village," Mustafa said.

In a statement, CNA said that it was made aware through media reports, of the arrest of Jules Ong, a Malaysian freelance television producer it engaged to produce a documentary on deforestation in Kelantan. 

CNA said that it "will cooperate fully with any official investigation”.

In a statement, the Kelantan Forestry Department confirmed that it had conducted an enforcement raid yesterday, to remove the blockades erected by the Orang Asli community in Gua Musang, at several roads leading into state reserve forests.

"This is as a follow-up measure as some in the Orang Asli community still insist on defying the order issued by the department on Nov 29, 2016 (to dismantle the blockade)," read the department's statement, noting that five persons have been detained for suspicion of instigating the blockades

The department said that the 133 persons involved in the joint raid included its own personnel as well as those from 8th General Operations Force Battalion based in Pengkalan Chepa and local police units.

It reiterated that the blockades were illegally erected as they were not on Orang Asli village land, but in the forest reserve that it administered.

And contrary to claims by activists, the department argued that it had been mobilising with help from police to stop illegal logging and other unsanctioned activities like illegal factories from the surrounding reserve forests.

The department said that it had arrested and charged six persons so far in cases which included four encroachment cases, in the Ulu Galas forest reserve, as well as an illegal factory.

The Forestry Department urged the Orang Asli to respect the law and and look for an amicable resolution to their demands for an end to trespasses into their land. It also urge them not to be influenced by outsiders but continue their dialogue with the state government.