In what seems another attempt by Maldives’ former president Mohammed Nasheed to pressure President Ibrahim Mohammed Solih, the ruling MDP passed a resolution, prompted by the former, asking the president to impose a state of emergency in the archipelago. Both leaders, once close associates, are at odds for months now. 

In a virtual meeting, held last week, Nasheed, who is currently in Germany seeking treatment after surviving an assassination bid in May, presented the resolution which was later passed with the support of 39 out of a total of 43 members. 

Police last week completed an inquiry into the case involving an attack on Nasheed, who is currently the speaker of Parliament. Ten people, allegedly influenced by ISIS the ideology, were arrested by police for planning and executing the attack. 

Nasheed, however, remained unsatisfied with the extent and pace of the inquiry. Earlier, he had demanded the president to allow police to mass arrest suspected extremists to know who financed the attack on him. Solih though ignored his request. 

Later, accusing the government of tolerating extremism, Nasheed had declared he could no longer align himself politically with Solih. He also cornered the government for failing to pass the controversial Hate Speech bill. Furthermore, Imran Abdullah, the country’s home minister who comes from the AP party, a coalition partner in the government, also faced charges from Nasheed who accused the former of being soft on extremism. 

In the recent resolution, which was passed after police completed the inquiry into the assassination bid, Nasheed said the majority of the MDP, the ruling party, believed that the country must move into a state of emergency, to determine the extent of the threat of religious extremism and to allow security services to capture terrorists.

Significantly, Solih has so far maintained complete silence on the issue and has not uttered a word against Nasheed’s allegations. 

In a speech that he delivered on the occasion of the Maldives’ Independence day on Monday, Solih said the government had taken several actions against radical groups promoting extremism. However, what might be an indirect reference to Nasheed’s demands, he said such issues would be not resolved through “legal actions” rather by following the “true teachings of Islam”. 

(SAM)