SEPANG, Mar 10 — Malaysia will release pictures of the two passengers who travelled with stolen passports on board the missing Malaysia Airline flight MH370, Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today

He said the photos, captured from CCTV footage at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), have so far been shared with local and international intelligence agencies, as the authorities probe a possible terrorist link among other possibilities in the plane’s sudden disappearance.

“We will give the media copies of the photos of the two suspects,” he said at a press conference.

He did not say when the pictures will be released.

Intense speculation is swirling around the two passengers on the missing Boeing 777-200 who had boarded the plane using  stolen Italian and Austrian passports.

Subsequent reports later claimed that two Asian men using the stolen passports had jointly purchased their tickets in Phuket to board the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, enroute to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Last night, national newswire Bernama quoted Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying that CCTV footage showed two men with Asian features checking in for the flight using the stolen passports, prompting an internal probe on local immigration authorities.

Hishammuddin  refused to verify his Cabinet colleague’s claim, insisting that he did not know what Ahmad Zahid based his comments on.

The defense minister also brushed aside claims by a previously-unknown group alleging responsibility for the missing plane, saying that he has read their letter and that there is no evidence to back their claim.

“Yes (I have read their letter), and I don’t think there is any sound ground to say that is is true,” he said, referring to the Chinese Martyrs’ Brigade.

The group sent its statement to various journalists in China yesterday, saying: “You kill one of our clan, we will kill 100 if you as pay back”, as quoted by The Nation.

Chinese media outlets were reportedly to be skeptical of the statement, with some suggesting that it could be a hoax made up to stir ethnic tensions that followed a series of separatist attacks in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region and the recent mass stabbing in Kunming, Yunnan, that left 33 people dead.

“I have been meeting with intelligence agencies, I have met with US intelligence and we saw the visuals at KLIA... all the information is being digested by both local and international agencies,” Hishammuddin said.

“We are investigating all angles, but I must repeat that the focus is on finding the aircraft,” he said.