PETALING JAYA - The ashes of Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) leader Chin Peng, who lived in exile in Thailand after the CPM was disbanded, has been brought back to Malaysia six years after his death, the Malaysiakini news website reported on Tuesday (Nov 26).

The report said his ashes were brought back from Thailand to Malaysia on Sept 16, said Mr Chai Kan Fook, 81, who belongs to a group that coordinated the return.

A memorial ceremony was held on the same day in the town of Ipoh in the state of Perak, Malaysiakini reported.

Chin Peng, whose real name is Ong Boon Hua, led the armed struggle of the Communist Party of Malaya against the colonial British authorities and then the Malayan government after 1957.

The hostilities ended only in 1989 with a Thailand-brokered peace accord.

Chin Peng died of cancer in 2013 at the age of 88.

He had been living in exile in Thailand after the 1989 peace accord, and his attempts to return to his birthplace in Perak had been stymied by the Malaysian courts on the basis that he did not have citizenship papers.

The country's former prime minister Najib Razak had also called him a "terrorist leader" and said that his ashes would not be allowed into the country.

It was unclear, however, whether the return of his ashes had been sanctioned by the current government or if the group had sought permission to do so.

Mr Chai told Malaysiakini the ashes were scattered in the sea near the coastal town of Lumut in Perak and in the jungles of the Titiwangsa mountain range.