A group of eleven suspected terrorists with links to al-Qaeda have been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the disappearance of Malaysian flight MH370 and were being interrogated Saturday, according to media reports on Sunday.

The suspects had reportedly formed a new terror group that is believed to be carrying out bomb attacks in Muslim countries. They were arrested last week in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur and in the state of Kedah.

Flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens in the early hours of March 8, about an hour into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, after climbing to a cruising altitude of 35,000 ft.

No distress signal was sent from the lost plane, and about two-thirds of the 227 passengers and twelve crew aboard the plane were Chinese. The airline said other nationalities included 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French and three Americans. It is thought to have crashed into the Indian Ocean

Despite an extensive multi-million-dollar air and sea search, no trace of the plane has been found.

“The interrogations come after international investigators, including the FBI and MI6, asked for the militants, whose ages range from 22 to 55 and include students, odd-job workers, a young widow and business professionals, to be questioned intensively about Flight MH370,” the Daily Mail reported.

An Officer with the Counter Terrorism Division of Malaysian Special Branch said the arrests had heightened fears that the flight’s disappearance two months ago is linked to terrorism.

“The possibility that the plane was diverted by militants is still high on the list and international investigators have asked for a comprehensive report on this new terror group,” the officer said, according to UK’s Daily Mail.

“Al-Qaeda remains fixated on commercial air attacks. In the past, al-Qaeda operatives have moved easily in and out of Malaysia,” Fred Burton, VP of Intelligence at the U.S.-based geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor and former State Department counterterrorism agent, told Al Arabiya News.

Last month, an alleged plot by Malaysian Islamists to hijack a passenger jet, in a similar style to the September 11, 2001 attacks, was linked to the disappearance of Flight MH370, Britain’s Telegraph reported.

The connection to the Malaysia Airlines flight, which went missing on March 8, was being investigated following claims from an al-Qaeda “supergrass” who recently spoke of a Malaysian plot in a New York court.