By Our Correspondent in Male’
Religious fanatics are behind the bomb explosion that took place in Male’ on Saturday, a source from Maldives Police Service told Maldives Today.
An improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated at the entrance of Sultan Park on Saturday, injuring twelve tourists who were in the park for sight-seeing. A honeymoon couple from Britain sustained extensive burns from the attack.
The police told the press on Monday that they have arrested eleven people concerning the attack. Nine of them are Maldivians while the other two are foreigners. The police did not specify the nationality of the foreigners but it is believed that they are Bangladeshis. The police confirmed that there was a minor among the arrested and that all arrested people are male. The police informed the media that two suspects were brought back from a foreign country while another was detained at the airport while trying to leave the country.
The police said some of the arrested people have already confessed to the bomb attack and are providing the police with details of how the attack was planned. The police did not identify the arrested people and did not provide details of the motives because they felt it was too early in the investigation to provide the information.
However, our source within the police confirms the involvement of religious fanatics in the bomb attack. A young boy named Sobah was arrested from Villingili, an island which is now considered as a ‘suburb’ of Male’. It is believed that it was his Wataniya sim card which was in the mobile phone used to initiate the charge in the IED.
Witnesses said they heard the sound of a mobile phone ringing seconds before the explosion. A mobile phone was found at the scene along with pieces of other devices used to make the bomb. A group of tourists were walking out of the park when the explosion occurred. It is believed that a person within close range detonated the bomb with another mobile phone while watching the group of tourists walk out of the park. Male’s main mosque and Islamic Center is next to the park and its premises could have been used as a vantage point to launch the attack.
A gas cylinder of the type used by blacksmiths was discovered from the scene. The first two arrests police made were two blacksmiths and they have been identified by the media. The gas cylinder and the mobile phone were not destroyed in the explosion and have become the most useful items for the police in their investigation. FBI investigators have now joined the investigation into an attack that could have had links with other extremist organizations or cells in the region.
Sobah, the boy arrested from Villingili, was involved in a confrontation with police in June this year when a group of fanatics tried to have their own congregation of Friday prayers in a Male’ mosque in which Friday prayers are not officially held. The separatist prayer group was armed with clubs and stones. A policeman had to be hospitalized after sustaining injuries during the clash. Sobah was released by the police later because he was a minor at the time of the incident. It is not clear whether Sobah is the minor that the police have arrested this time.
Saturday’s attack is now linked to Dot Com Group, a religious fanatic group operating in the Maldives, which denounces democracy and political parties and advocates violence. It has been recruiting young people into its ranks, and there are several members in Male’ and Villingili. The Dot Com Group is distinguished from other groups for its extremism and advocacy of violence.
The government of the Maldives has in the past downplayed the significance of the growth of extremism in the country. Tension between the people of Himendhoo island last year over the closing down of a mosque by extremists escalated into violence. An island official was found dead on a beach in December while his younger brother barely escaped from a burning speedboat two months earlier. The government has not prosecuted anyone concerning the two incidents.
The government was quick to capitalize on Saturday’s bomb attack as an opportunity to lash out at its opponents. Ibrahim Shafiu, the spokesperson of the president’s Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), indirectly blamed Friends of Maldives (FOM), a UK-based activist group which has been lobbying for a boycott of selective resorts having close ties with the government.
“The first thing that comes to our minds is that their tactics have failed and so they have resorted to this,” Shafiu told Minivan News without naming FOM.
“Unless proved otherwise by the investigative authorities, we will be unable to believe they are not involved in this,” he said.
President Gayoom lashed out at FOM in a television interview that “people calling for the boycott of the Maldives on the tourism front,” must “share some responsibility,” for the bomb attack. FOM has subsequently issued a statement concerning the accusations of the government. FOM had become a target of government criticism in the past because the group has consistently exposed human rights abuses in the Maldives.
Analysts believe that years of oppression by the dictatorship, high rates of drug abuse among youth, limited opportunities for youth and the congested living conditions in Male’ are breeding grounds for religious fanaticism. By sweeping this issue under the carpet the government is giving a free rein to fanatics to recruit young people and spread their messages of hate. Saturday’s explosion targeted at foreign tourists may be just the tip of the iceberg.
Further Reading:
http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=2520
http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=2757
http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=2800
http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=2971
http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=3304
http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=3311
