Kuala Lumpur, April 17 (IANS) The wife of a detained Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader has added to the plethora of pleas being made to the Malaysian government for the release of the organisation’s five leaders. K. Vickneswary has urged the government to let her husband - Hindraf coordinator K. Vasantha Kumar - visit their ailing daughter.

The four-year-old girl, V. Vishaleny, has been down with fever since last week and was admitted to a private hospital Wednesday.

“She is yearning for him and I am afraid that her condition will deteriorate if she doesn’t get to see her father soon,” The Star quoted Vickneswary as saying Thursday.

Vasantha Kumar and fellow Hindraf leaders P. Uthayakumar, M. Manoharan, V, Ganabatirau and R. Kenghadaran were jailed for two years under the Internal Security Act (ISA) after staging a rally in November on behalf of Malaysia’s two million Tamil Hindus.

The appeals for their release are piling up. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi received a delegation of Hindraf leaders and the mother of one of the detainees Tuesday.

The government has, however, given no indication of its intent.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, to whom Vickneswary addressed her appeal, has said that the government would keep in mind “national interests” and not be “swayed by sentiments”.