Kuala Lumpur (PTI): Five activists of a Hindu rights group, including one elected to Parliament while in jail, will continue to be in detention under a tough security law for having organised an "illegal" mass rally of ethnic Indians complaining of racial inequality, Malaysian authorities said.

The decision to continue the detention of the five members of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) was taken by an advisory board, which reviews cases of detention every three or six months, Home Minister Syed Hamid said.

The board found that the views of the five Hindraf activists, detained since December last year after they organised the rally of more than 20,000 people on November 25 despite government declaring it "illegal", remained unchanged, 'New Straits Times' reported.

Thus, the board recommended to the ministry that the detention order of the five in Kamunting be extended, Syed Hamid was quoted as saying.

The five Hindraf members -- P Uthayakumar, M Manoharan, K Vasantha Kumar, V Ganabatirau and R Kengadharan -- are among 62 people held under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) at the Kamunting detention centre.

Manoharan, a lawyer, contested the March 8 poll on an opposition party ticket and won his seat despite being jailed throughout the election campaign.

After visiting the detention centre situated outside Kuala Lumpur, Syed Hamid yesterday said Hindraf was an extremist group because it was not registered, the paper reported.