MELAKA, Sept 21 — Police rescued a total of 24 people, 19 of them minors, from a house in Kuala Sungai Baru, Alor Gajah here as part of a massive state-wide raid on Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISBH), a local business that has been suspected of conducting criminal activities such as child sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

Five adults, two men and three women, were arrested at the house said to be owned by a GISBH member, Utusan Malaysia reported.

According to the newspaper, 14 other properties raided by police and other government agencies include a bakery, a restaurant, a curtain shop, a mini market, a food processing factory, and an office.

Most of the premises were reportedly vacant, including two houses that were used as charitable homes in Krubong.

Utusan Malaysia reported the raids were conducted jointly with the Department of Social Welfare, the Melaka Islamic Religious Department, the National Registration Department, and the Public Works Department.

GISBH has been linked to the former Al Arqam Islamic group that was described as a deviant movement and banned in the 1980s.

The company came under the spotlight earlier this month after Bukit Aman announced a massive raid on 20 charity houses linked to GISBH in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, in which over 400 child residents were rescued from suspected sexual abuses.

About 200 people between the ages of 17 and 64 were also reported to have been arrested then.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain later announced that a number of individuals linked to the company are suspected of involvement with a number of criminal activities from sexually abusing the minors to coaching them on how to do the same to other children, to human trafficking, and criminal intimidation.

In the immediate aftermath of the police disclosure, GISBH executive chairman and CEO Datuk Nasiruddin Mohd Ali admitted on September 14 to sodomy allegations but downplayed the number to "one or two” incidents.

Perlis was the first state to issue a fatwa on GISBH after declaring the business group as deviant.