‘BOMB ATTACK ON EX-MALDIVES PREZ LINKED TO ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS’

Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed is conscious after life-saving surgery, his family said on Saturday, as police made two arrests in connection with a blast they said was being treated as a terror attack.

Nasheed, the president of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party and the current parliament speaker, was critically injured after a bomb exploded as he left his family home in the capital Malé on Thursday.

Police and prosecutors on Saturday said they had arrested two men linked to Islamic extremism in connection with the blast.

Hospital officials said on Saturday that Nasheed is conscious and no longer needs breathing support. “I’m good,” Nasheed said after coming off life support, according to a tweet by his sister Nashida Sattar.