155 illegal immigrants detained in Malaysia

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About 155 illegal Uyghur immigrants, including 76 children, have been detained by the Malaysian authorities, a media report said Saturday.

Immigration officers raided two apartment units in Taman Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur where they discovered the immigrants from China's Xinjiang province, The Malaysian Star reported.

An immigration official said that 65 of them, including 32 children, were crammed into one unit on the 12th floor.

In the second unit on the first floor, officials found another 90 Uyghurs, including 44 children.

All of them are being detained at the Kuala Lumpur immigration lock-up in Jalan Duta for further investigations.

Security at all immigration checkpoints in Malaysia has been tightened following a report that four Chinese Uyghur militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) had passed through Malaysia before being arrested in Indonesia.

Indonesian authorities found that four Uyghurs had bought fake passports in Thailand and flown to Kuala Lumpur before heading to Bandung in west Java.

The report also said the foreigners were planning to join a terrorist cell in Sulawesi, where a number of groups and individuals, including radical cleric and convicted terrorist Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, are known to have voiced their support and raised funds for IS.