Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia announced Friday it will release 13 people detained under a strict security law, including three ethnic Indian activists accused of inciting racial tensions.

Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said he had signed the release letters for the three leaders of the Hindu Rights Action Force - P Uthayakumar, M Manoharan and K Vasantha - as well as 10 others who have been imprisoned without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

He said all 13 are expected to be released in two or three days.

The other detainees to be freed include Filipinos Sufian Salih, Hasim Talib, Abdul Jamal Azahari, Yusof Mohamad Salam and Husin Alih, as well as Indonesians Zainun Rasyhid and Aboud Ghafar Shahril, the Star online news portal said.

It was unclear how long the detainees have been imprisoned.

The three Malaysian ethnic Indian activists were responsible for organising a massive anti-government street demonstration in November 2007 to protest alleged discrimination faced by ethnic minorities in the Malay-majority country.

The three men have been held for about 17 months under the ISA, a decades-old law that allows for indefinite detention without trial for those believed to pose a threat to national security.

Last month, newly appointed Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the release of 13 ISA detainees days, including two other activists from the Hindu Rights Action Force.

Two-thirds of Malaysia's population is made up of ethnic Malays, followed by minority ethnic Chinese and Indians who have been increasingly voicing discontentment over an affirmative action programme which favours the Malay majority.

Upon his appointment in April, Najib announced that this programme would soon be revamped, with the hopes of winning back its badly-diminished support, evident by the government's worst losses suffered during last year's general elections.