The Hindu : Kerala News : Controversy erupts over deportation of Maldives national by Kerala police

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Controversy erupts over deportation of Maldives national by Kerala police

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: : The arrest and deportation of Maldivian national, Ibrahim Asif, by the Kerala Police allegedly for terrorist activities has taken a new turn with the Maldives Government and the Opposition Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) accusing each other of a role in the affair.

An official release by the Maldives Government said that Ibrahim Asif was the keeper at a shop owned by the spokesman of the MDP, Mohamed Latheef, before he became a member of the extremist Islamic group called the Jama'ah-tul-Muslimeen in 2001.

He had also been the manager of an agriculture island owned by a relative of the present chairman of the MDP, Mohamed Nasheed.

Dismissed

Mr. Latheef, however, told The Hindu that Asif had worked in his shop in a northern island some three years ago and that the manager had dismissed him after a few weeks for incompetence.

Maldives Police Service, which has taken Asif into custody, said that its investigations showed that Asif's cover in Sri Lanka was to carry out the activities of a UK-based non-governmental organisation, which had collected funds for tsunami relief.

(The Maldives Government has banned some foriegn nationals including founder and chairman of Friends of Maldives David Hardingham from entering the country.)

A plot: MDF

The Maldives Democratic Party says that it is a plot by the Maldives President, M. A. Gayoom, to discredit the MDP and its leaders. The precise details provided by the Asif about his funding to Kerala police itself cast doubts about his story.

The general council member of MDP and Editor-in-Chief of the Dhivehi Observer said: "What makes me suspicious is the link between this attempt to buy arms in Kerala and how on earth they concluded that the money was from tsunami aid collected in the UK — if so they are implying two things (a) Friends of Maldives — www.friendsofmaldives.org — which is closely affiliated with MDP, the opposition movement at large, are doing this or (b) that the UK aid organisations are using tsunami money to overthrow the Government of Gayoom and organise a terror attack in the Maldives.

The Maldives Police announced on Saturday it was collaborating with foreign intelligence agencies in investigating the attempt by the extremist organisation to carry out terrorist activities in the Maldives. According to information gathered by the Kerala Police, Asif was attempting to procure weapons and explosives to blow up important buildings in Male and to assassinate leading Government functionaries, the police said.

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