Third man arrested over attack on ex-president as hunt for fourth continues

Maldives police yesterday said they had arrested a person believed to be the prime suspect in an explosion that critically wounded the country’s former president and was blamed on Muslim extremists.

Police now have in custody three of the four suspects in Thursday’s blast targeting former president Mohamed Nasheed, who is recovering in hospital after multiple surgeries.

Police did not give details of the latest suspect or his background but in a text message confirmed they believe he is the person whose pictures were released on Saturday as authorities sought public help for identification. The remaining suspect remains at large.

Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem told reporters on Saturday that investigators still do not know which group was responsible. Two of Nasheed’s bodyguards and two apparent bystanders, including a British citizen, were also wounded.

A relative tweeted early yesterday that Nasheed had long conversations with some family members.

Hospital officials said the 53-year-old former president remains in an intensive care unit after initial life-saving surgeries to his head, chest, abdomen and limbs.

They told reporters that shrapnel from the blast damaged his intestines and liver, and that a piece of shrapnel broke his rib and had been less than a centimetre from his heart.

Nasheed is currently the speaker of parliament and has been an outspoken critic of religious extremism in the predominantly Sunni Muslim nation, where preaching and practising other faiths are banned by law. He has been criticised by religious hardliners for his closeness to the West and liberal policies.

Officers from the Australian Federal Police were assisting with the investigation, following a request from the Maldives. A British investigator also was to arrive in the Indian Ocean archipelago yesterday.

Nasheed was the first democratically elected president of the Maldives, serving from 2008 to 2012, when he resigned amid protests. He was defeated in the subsequent presidential election, and was ineligible for the 2018 race because of a prison sentence, but has remained an influential political figure.

He has championed global efforts to fight climate change, warning that rising seas caused by global warming threaten the nation’s low-lying islands.

The Maldives is known for its luxury resorts but has experienced occasional violent attacks. In 2007, a blast in a park in the capital wounded 12 foreign tourists, and was also blamed on religious extremists.

The Maldives has one of the highest per capita numbers of militants who fought in Syria and Iraq alongside Islamic State.