In a written reply, the home ministry said two more militants had died while receiving medical treatment.

“No one was pardoned by the Pardons Board. The opportunity for pardon or a lighter sentence is done through the fourth quarter review, according to the Prison Regulations 2000,” it said.

The ministry was replying to Ahmad Marzuk Shaary (PAS-Pengkalan Chepa), who had asked about the number of militants still in jail, and those who had been pardoned or sentenced to death.

Members of the cult sparked a major security alert in 2000 with a raid on a military armoury. Most of the 29 defendants were arrested at a jungle hideout in Perak following a four-day stand-off with security forces.

They took four hostages and killed two of them – a policeman and a soldier – before surrendering.

Their leader Mohd Amin Mohd Razali was sentenced to death for treason in 2006.