This came after Muhyiddin launched a fresh tirade against DAP yesterday, including accusing the Pakatan Harapan (PH) component party of compromising on national security for political interests.

Ramasamy, the Penang DAP deputy chairman and deputy chief minister, questioned the arrest of ordinary members of the Indian community, including some DAP members, for allegedly supporting the LTTE in 2019.

“Was there a serious national security threat from the 12 persons, especially since some of them were ordinary contract workers and odd-job labourers?” he said in a statement.

“If the police had the evidence, why were they not arrested under other existing laws, other than the dreaded Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma)?”

Sosma enables the police to detain a person suspected of being involved in terrorist activities for a period not exceeding 28 days without trial.

Ramasamy said the police did not have the evidence to charge the suspects in court.

In February 2020, then attorney-general Tommy Thomas dropped the charges against the 12 individuals.

In his Facebook post yesterday, Muhyiddin, then the home minister, said he had been briefed by the police that there were former LTTE members who had fled from Sri Lanka to Malaysia, but were still a threat to the nation’s security.

He also said DAP was unhappy with his firm stance to keep LTTE in the country’s list of terror organisations.

He was responding to Perak DAP chief Nga Kor Ming who said Malaysia would become like Afghanistan should PN come to power, in warning about a Taliban type of government.

In September, the Federal Court dismissed an application by V Balamurugan, one of the 12 individuals charged in late 2019, to obtain leave to proceed with his appeal to delist LTTE as a terrorist group.