The Besut district authorities moved into the Sky Kingdom commune in northern Terengganu and destroyed the giant replicas of a teapot, umbrella tower and various other marble-and-concrete structures today.

According to several villagers, heavy machinery were brought in at about 2pm and the entire series of structures in Hulu Besut's Kampung Batu 13 were destroyed within a few hours.

"Can you hear the loud noises? The buildings are crumbling as we speak. They are now breaking down the main hall - it's the last of all," said one of the followers when contacted at the village about 2.30pm today.

"The whole place has been destroyed. There is nothing left, not even as a remembrance."

The villager said their houses were however left intact but they had been given three weeks by state religious authorities to vacate the village or risk immediate detention.

It is learnt that district authorities, who were accompanied by the police, were present during the demolition but the villagers were unable to identify the officers.

The villagers are followers of Ayah Pin, a 65-year-old local ( photo, right ) who espouses an all-encompassing spiritual philosophy which religious authorities have declared as deviant.

Neither the Besut police, land administrator nor the state police could be contacted at press time.

Three wives arrested

In an immediate response, Haris Mohamed Ibrahim, counsel for Che Minah Remeli - who owns the land where the commune is located, said he was uncertain as to who had authorised the action.

"We don't know the action was taken pursuant to what powers, but we view this with concern as the stay was ordered by a High Court judge.

"If in fact it is the Land Office, we will immediately move to file the committal proceedings."

He said it would be difficult to say anything more until a more definitive answer is obtained on today's action.

Following the granting of bail for 27 of the 44 followers last Tuesday, villagers had lodged reports at the local police station seeking protection before returning to the commune for fear of a reprisal.

Two weeks ago, the commune was attacked by a group of masked men, who torched some of the 'religious' buildings.

Che Minah, 60, is the first wife of Ariffin Mohammad, who is better known as Ayah Pin. Both of them are believed to have gone into hiding.

The manhunt started after they evaded arrest during a raid led by the Terengganu religious affairs department on July 20.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that Ayah Pin's three other wives were detained this morning.

The trio - wife number two Che Zaharah Awang, 45, wife number three Ruzilan Mukhtar, 41, and wife number four Nik Kamariah Nik Pah, 33 - were arrested in Kelantan and handed to Terengganu religious authorities at 4pm today.

They will be charged at the Syariah Lower Court tomorrow for disobeying the order of the Islamic religious authorities by being involved with the deviationist teachings.

Suhakam seeks to contact police

Last Wednesday, a group of Ayah Pin followers filed complaints alleging human rights violations against the villagers with the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

When contacted, Suhakam complaints and inquiry working group chairperson Prof Mohd Hamdan Adnan said he had been trying to reach the police but to no avail.

"I'm trying to find out if legal procedures have been breached in reaching the decision to demolish those buildings," he said.

"There are laws in the country and the authorities must uphold the law."

He said the state government itself was not above the law and had a duty to observe the laws.

"I think the federal authorities should intervene because we don't know what the state authorities are doing in this matter," added Hamdan.

Suhakam's visit to Kampung Batu 13 was postponed twice - both on Friday and today - before it was put off indefinitely following an internal directive for a final decision at the commission's next meeting.

Human rights group dissatisfied

Malaysian Human Rights Society (Hakam) immediate past president Ramdas Tikamdas, in questioning the delay, noted the lack of urgency in addressing the complainants' concerns.

"We want to know why Suhakam had postponed the visit, especially when this is a continuing violation of human rights and the complainants had appealed for protection," he said.

"There is a court order and a formal complaint lodged with Suhakam pending an inquiry but the authorities' actions seem to defy law and order.

"We want to know what is the basis of the demolition. The authorities must account immediately."

Hakam plans to have an emergency meeting to discuss the legal propriety of the various agencies and whether there had been compliance with human rights standards as well as law and order.