They were roused from bed between 6.00 am and 8.00 am on a Sunday, hustled by armed Malaysian policemen out of their posh apartment block in Kuala Lumpur's upmarket Brickfield to a neighbouring police station, handcuffed and made to squat in a motor shed for almost 12 hours.
They could not make phone calls, nor were they given any reason why they had been arrested.
And although they had been rescued from detention by the end of the day, many of the 270 demoralised Indian IT professionals were determined to pack up and leave the country where they were invited as guests.
In Delhi the National Association of Software and Service Companies condemned the arrests in Malaysia.
"This is an unfortunate act, which maligns the dignity of the individual and the industry and we are in touch with key authorities to ensure the safety of the Indian IT professionals. We are closely in touch with our partners in Malaysia called Multimedia Development Corporation to verify the details. We are also in touch with the ministry of external affairs to ensure that there is an early resolution to the issue and Indian IT professionals can resume their work," Nasscom said in a press release.
After their "release" the IT professionals were brought back to the safety of the Indian High Commission. There, amid the chirping of the cicadas and other nighttime noises, as they stood in a circle and sang the national anthem, many had tears in their eyes.
"They are mostly very young people, intelligent and deeply traumatised by what happened to them," India's High Commissioner in Malaysia, Veena Sikri, told Business Standard.
It was Sikri's quick intervention with "very highly placed people in the Malaysian government" despite a public holiday that got most of the Indians back. However, Sikri says she is mystified about the event and why it occurred.
"About 10 people are still in detention -- that means they are in jail. There is nothing wrong with their visas or passports. I am trying to understand how this happened," she said.
The passports of at least 70 of the 270 Indians rounded up by the Malaysian police, suspecting them to be illegal workers, were defaced.
How men who occupy high end IT jobs and offer no competition to local Malays were detained on suspicion of being illegal immigrants is not known. Sikri says India and Malaysia have excellent bilateral relations.
When President Mahathir Mohammad came to India in October 2002, he visited several IT concerns both in Delhi and Hyderabad. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Kuala Lumpur in 2001 and again for the NAM summit just ten days ago.
Malaysia has done pioneering work in the creation of the multimedia super corridor. "Most companies in the MSC have been given a bill of guarantee that they can hire IT professionals from anywhere in the world. In fact, the CEO of one such company who is a Malay was unable to meet his employees when he rushed to the police station" she said. Oddly enough, 95 per cent of those to have been arrested were Indians.
