Makkal Osai has been receiving calls from unidentified individuals who have threatened to torch the Tamil daily's office.

"We will not allow Makkal Osai newspapers to come out. Wait and see, we'll burn your office.

"From now on, Makkal Osai newspapers cannot come out. And if they do, we will burn them all over the country. We will burn your office and reduce it to ashes," warned the callers, according to the daily.

The callers had also used hurled vulgarities and behaved in an "uncivilised and barbaric" manner, it added.

Yesterday, MIC members in Johor had torched copies of the newspaper and another Tamil daily Malaysia Nanban for allegedly misquoting the party president S Samy Vellu.

In a sarcastic note, Makkal Osai today said ' syabas ' to those who set ablaze the newspapers and those 'impatiently waiting' to burn its office for their 'awareness and love' for the Tamil language.

Police report lodged

Meanwhile, Makkal Osai and Tamil Nanban had reported that a police report was lodged against the burning of the two newspapers.

The report was filed by representatives from the Selangor newspaper vendors association with the Sentul district police headquarters.

In another development, Tamil Nanban reported today that its sales had skyrocketed over the past two days.

It said the 'burning of newspapers' incident had boosted the daily's popularity nationwide and lead to an increase in circulation.

Tamil Nanban and Makkal Osai became embroiled in a controversy after reporting that Samy Vellu had remarked that former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad did not give anything to the Indian community.

The newspapers claimed that the MIC president said this during a party convention in Johor last Tuesday.

Samy Vellu denied the report and accused the dailies of distorting his statements. He also alleged that the dailies, which have since defended their reports, were aligned to his estranged deputy S Subramaniam.

He then launched an attack against Subramiam, whom he accused of employing underhand tactics. The latter has denied this.