By Our Correspondent in Male’
Soldiers from Maldives National Defence Force will start patrolling the streets of Male’ to curb the growing street violence, MNDF said on Monday in a press conference.
Major Ibrahim Afzal from MNDF told reporters that the government has requested MNDF to intervene to stop the street violence which has left a 15-year-old boy in a coma at Intensive Care Unit of Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).
Afzal said MNDF will be working to control the violence and that police will be involved in the investigation phase. During the past three days several incidents of street violence have left a number of young men hospitalized with severe injuries. Many people believe the police have failed to stop the rise in gang fights.
Asked if the government asked MNDF to step in because of the failure of police to control the violence, Afzal said that it was not up to the MNDF to question if a certain party failed to control the violence or not, and that soldiers do not question the commands they receive but followed them.
On Saturday evening a young group attacked two young boys Hussain Azzam, 22 and Ahmed Nasif, 24, while they were having coffee at Dolphin Cafe in Male’. The same day afternoon a young man was attacked in Lifan service station near Dharubaaruge in Male’. In the early hours of Sunday morning, two young men were attacked near Galolhu Stadium. One of them, Shifau Ismail, 15, is in critical condition and has a slight chance of survival. On Sunday evening another 15-year-old boy was attacked near a cyber cafe in Maafannu Ward of Male’. He is also being treated at IGMH’s ICU. In a fight that occurred later the same night Dawood Yahya, a journalist working for ‘Raajje’ newspaper was attacked while he was taking photos of the fight. In the latest in the series of alarming street violence, a young man named Mohamed Rasheed, 19, was attacked on Monday afternoon in Maafannu ward while a relative of Rasheed was attacked earlier in the day.
In most incidents, masked men armed with box cutters, knives, iron rods and wooden poles attacked the victims.
Maldives Police Service marked the 75th anniversary of police service in the country on March 29. An official ceremony was held on Monday evening to mark the anniversary. Even though originally formed as a separate force, the police worked as a military force for decades under the National Security Service, the predecessor of MNDF, till a separate civilian police force was created in 2004.
The youth gangs in Maldives are allegedly protected by the police and are influenced by senior government officials. The rise in violence comes as the government is embattled in the Constituent Assembly over clauses on transitional terms to be included in the constitution under amendment.
