After the explosion in the Maldives, in shock, Mohamed Nasheed | spokesperson Maldives News

Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives and current speaker of parliament, remains in hospital bomb attack which shocked serious shrapnel wounds and the Indian Ocean archipelago.

The 53-year-old had just left his home in the capital Male and was about to get into his car late on Thursday when a motorbike bomb exploded. Neighbors said the blast was heard in the city.

Nasheed suffered multiple injuries in the blast and was taken to hospital for treatment, including surgery. Interior Minister Imran Abdulla said Nasheed’s injuries do not endanger life in the local media. One of Nasheed’s bodyguards was also taken to hospital.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih went to a hospital caring for his close ally Nasheed and called for an emergency meeting after the attack.

Liver surgery was supposed to be a 7-hour operation, but it should be over because there are few complications. ???? Think about your Friday prayers! May Allah forgive his sins and give him healing medicine

– Susan ???? (@SusanIbrahim) May 7, 2021

Solih said the blast on Friday was an “attack on democracy” and a dependent economy for tourism in the Maldives, and announced that Australian federal police investigators will arrive on Saturday to assist in the investigation.

Neither the president nor the police have given further details about the attack and no one has claimed responsibility.

“Nasheed escaped an attack,” a Maldivian government official told AFP news agency. “He is injured, but his condition is stable.”

Images from social media showed a destroyed engine at the scene of the attack, which was shut down by armed police units and security forces.

Meanwhile, many Maldivian officials and citizens went to social media to condemn the attack and wanted Nasheed to recover quickly.

Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar also expressed deep concern over the attack and said Nasheed “will never be afraid”.

Strongly denounce the attack on the President of Parliament, the President @Mohamed_asheed this afternoon. Cowardly attacks like this have no place in our society. My thoughts and prayers are with President Nasheed and others injured in this attack, as well as their families.

– Abdulla Shahid (@abdulla_shahid) May 6, 2021

Very concerned with the attack on the Speaker @Mohamed_asheed. You want him to heal quickly. Know that he will never be afraid.

– Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 6, 2021

People living in 3 blocks were shocked by the noise of the explosion.

I can’t imagine what he should do to Nasheed, his security team, and everyone around him.

– zaydamjad ???? (@zaydamjad) May 6, 2021

“This is very significant, not only in terms of scale, but also in terms of purpose,” Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program and chief associate of South Asia at the Wilson Center, told Al Jazeera.

“Still being a political president, a very prominent political figure, and a very prominent democratic leader in a region marked by strong and hard nationalist nationalists today … is a great thing,” Kugelman said.

Nasheed became the first democratically elected president of the Maldives in 2008, ending Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s 30-year term.

In 2012, however, he was ousted in a coup. Gayoom’s half-brother, Abdulla Yameen, was defeated in the elections discussed the following year.

In 2015, Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison for being politically motivated for highly criticized terrorism charges. A year later, he was released from prison in London for medical treatment. Nasheed was granted asylum in the UK in 2016 and returned to the Maldives after his candidate, Solih, won the 2018 presidential election after suffering a huge defeat for Yameen.

In 2019, he won parliamentary elections and became a spokesperson, the second most powerful in the country.

Nasheed suffered multiple injuries in the blast and was taken to hospital for treatment, including surgery [AFP]

Nasheed has championed global efforts to combat climate change and has been sharply critical of religious “extremism” in the Maldives, a Sunni Muslim nation where the law forbids the preaching and practice of other faiths.

Kugelman said the political motivation behind the explosion that injured Nasheed was “always there” but that “there is a humble history of Islamist militancy in the Maldives.”

The country, with a population of about 340,000, is a well-known holiday destination in the Indian Ocean, which has been the target of violent attacks, including against independent journalists. It is known that some 300 Maldivians have traveled to Syria to join ISIL (ISIS) at the height of its fighting.

The armed group denounced an attack on a boat in the Maldives last year, but there is little evidence of the group’s presence in the archipelago.

In 2019, researchers he said Journalist Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla, who disappeared in 2014, was killed by a local al-Qaeda affiliate, publicly acknowledging for the first time the existence of a strong group and an effort to silence the liberal voices in the Maldives.

Yameen Rasheed was a prominent liberal blogger who led a campaign to find Rilwan hil In 2017.

Police inspected the area after an explosion outside Nasheed’s Male home [Police Service via Reuters]