WANG KELIAN (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Malaysia's Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar on Thursday clarified that not all the 12 people he had said were detained had links to people-smuggling camps.

Speaking at a press conference, Dr Wan Junaidi said only two of those he said were arrested in connection with the mass graves discovered near the Malaysia-Thai border were believed to have transported illegal migrants. The two, he said, were police officers.

Dr Wan Junaidi had on Wednesday said 12 Malaysian police officials had been nabbed since last year in connection to the camps.

The rest of those arrested were "just involved in smuggling of goods" he told reporters at the Wang Kelian General Operations Force tactical base in Perlis on Thursday.

Malaysia said on Thursday that it believed 139 people were buried in graves at remote detention camps used by people smugglers on the Thai border which were discovered on the weekend, AFP reported.

Thai police in early May had uncovered similar camps on their side of the border. They launched a crackdown that disrupted the flow of migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar down through Thailand and across the land border into Malaysia.