Malaysia regrets raid on Indians

Malaysia’s Home Ministry said a police report showed ‘‘some slight weaknesses in the way the operation was handled and managed,’’ and said there was no intention to target Indian workers.

The police admitted they had failed to notify the Indian ambassador of the raid and had initially barred consular access to the men detained.

‘‘The police apologise for this,’’ said the ministry’s statement, issued on Bernama news agency. ‘‘The Home Ministry regrets any inconvenience and hardship caused to those detained.’’

The Indian High Commission estimated that originally 270 people were hauled out of their apartments in a condominium in central Kuala Lumpur, though close to a third were immediately released.

The police report said 191, almost all of them Indian and mostly computer specialists, were taken to a police station.

Only seven are still being detained — four Indians and three Pakistanis.

The report said the failure to initially involve immigration officers or use ultra-violet scanning machines resulted in delays and led to police officers spoiling passport visa pages.

Many of the Indians caught up in the raid have returned home saying they no longer felt safe in Malaysia. Some said they had been treated roughly and humiliated by the police.

‘‘Throughout the entire operation there were no incidents of any physical abuse towards any of those detained,’’ the police report said.

The incident hurt Malaysia’s reputation, as the country harbours high ambitions for its IT sector, but is short of skilled workers that India has in abundance.

‘‘We’ve done what we could do in expressing our regret,’’ Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said, according to the Bernama news agency, following a meeting with other Southeast Asian foreign ministers in the eastern state of Sabah.