Former Maldivian president and current parliamentary speaker Mohamed Nasheed yesterday underwent more surgery following an assassination attempt, but his condition was described as stable.
The Indian Ocean archipelago’s first democratically elected leader was seriously injured when a device attached to a motorcycle was detonated as he entered a car in the capital, Male, late on Thursday, an official said.
“Nasheed escaped an assassination attempt,” a Maldivian government official said. “He is injured, but his condition is stable.”
Photo: Reuters
The private ADK hospital said that the 53-year-old required further surgery following a thorough assessment of his condition.
The hospital did not give additional details, but a family member said that shrapnel was removed from a lung and his liver.
“We are hopeful of a full recovery,” he said, adding that Nasheed was responsive and spoke with doctors as he was admitted.
One of his bodyguards was also taken to a hospital.
Officials said that the motorcycle with the device attached was parked down the narrow lane leading to Nasheed’s home.
Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a close ally of Nasheed, said that an investigation was under way as officials rushed to denounce the targeted attack on the country’s second most powerful figure.
“Cowardly attacks like these have no place in our society,” Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid wrote on Twitter.
The Indian Ocean nation of 340,000 Sunni Muslims is best known for its luxury holiday resorts popular with honeymooners, but it suffers from regular political turmoil.
There was no claim of responsibility for the bomb attack, but officials close to Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said they suspected vested political interests opposed to his anti-corruption drive.
Nasheed has vowed to investigate a US$90 million theft from the state’s tourism promotion authority during the tenure of former Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen.
“There are some dormant Islamists who could have collaborated with political elements threatened by Nasheed’s anti-corruption drive,” an MDP source said.
The government has cracked down on extremism and foreign preachers are banned. Violent attacks have been rare, but a dozen foreign tourists were wounded by a bomb blast in Male in 2007. The Islamic State claimed a boat arson attack last year, but there is little evidence the group has a presence in the archipelago.
Yameen claimed that he survived an assassination attempt following a blast aboard his yacht in September 2015. He was unhurt.
Nasheed rose to become the Maldives’ first democratically elected leader in 2008 in the country’s first multiparty elections after 30 years of autocratic rule.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese