Thimarafushi, Maldives – The Maldives Police has foiled a domestic terror plot, with the perpetrators preparing to bomb a school.
The Maldives Police on 11th November 2020, stated an operation in Malé and Thimarafushi geographic area and apprehended 6 people. Sunsequently on 27th November 2020 the police arrested 2 from the island of Thimarafushi.
The police initially received intelligence of a radicalized group under the guidance of the Islamic State. They received intelligence that an individual has been appointed as the Amir in Thimarafushi, Maldives, by the Khorasan Province division of the Islamic State. This individual found to be Abdulla Shareef is now under arrest.
The group’s activities include training to build an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) device on a “Nasaah” dhoni (local fishing boat), conducting training sessions on uninhabited islands, conducting radical teaching classes at homes in Thimarafushi to radicalize the islanders and influence the children and financially assisting people with radical views.
(The individuals) had plans to bomb the Th. Thimarafushi school while students were attending the O’level exam. They had broken into the school laboratory to this end.
Maldives Police
During the police search of premises related to the group they found manuals on how to build IEDs and dive searches of the ocean where the “Nasaah” dhoni frequented resulted with components needed to build an IED.
One individual used telegram as a means of communication and instigated radicalized individuals to create home-made bombs, raised funds, and transferred money to Syria.
Radical groups prey on children, people in poverty, criminals and entice them with money. They reach out with money and promoting moderate islamic views but slowly alienate the individuals from society by forcing them to stop going to prayer at the mosques and teaching that the Islam practiced in Maldives is wrong. They radicalize the individuals by showing radical videos, books, literary materials and entice them into their fold.
The case has now been handed over to the Prosecutor Generals office on 25 January 2021.
