Malé, Maldives – The Parliament on Wednesday night passed the inquiry report on the terror attack of May 6 against former President and current Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed.
The inquiry report compiled by the Parliament’s Committee on National Security Services (241 Committee) outlines how the incident took place, whether any negligence or fourplay was involved and measures that can be taken to prevent such an attack in the future.
During the Parliament session to finalize and pass the report, Committee Chairperson MP Mohamed Aslam spoke about the work done to compile the report and also some of the important aspects in it.
As per Aslam, the report consisting of 236 pages will include information regarding national security. He noted that it will be shared with the Chief Justice and Parliament Speaker with that information intact, but will be omitted in the version shared to be shared with the public.
Additionally, Aslam revealed that details are included in the report from the events leading up to the attack and after.
Over 50 people including Defence Minister Mariya Didi, Chief of Defence Force Major General Abdullah Shamaal and Vice Chief of Defence Force Brigadier General Abdul Raheem Abdul Latheef from the Defence Forces were summoned for the inquiry.
The committee has also summoned several other authorities and personnel to the committee for questioning regarding the May terror attack. This includes Home Minister Imran Abdullah, Director General of Counter-Terrorism Center Brigadier General Zakariyya Mansoor, Commissioner of Police Mohamed Hameed, Police Director of Counter-Terrorism Superintendent of Police Fareed Ismail as well as Speaker Nasheed’s bodyguards.
Furthermore, top officials from Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) were summoned to the 241 Committee Parliamentary inquiry including Governor of MMA Ali Hashim, Deputy Governor of MMA Ahmed Imad as well as Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit Ibrahim Ahmed Nasir.
“We also looked into the security details near ADK Hospital [after Nasheed was admitted]. Three different aspects were looked into regarding this. We have also inquired into the gun found in a bathroom in ADK, and highlighted four aspects we noticed.”
In order to prevent such incidents from repeating and to stop religious extremism and terrorism in Maldives, the report includes 45 recommendations from the Committee.
Some of these recommendations include creating a harmonized data system that would enable proper gathering and exchange of intelligence information between Maldives Police Services and Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) and appointing a national security advisor to give recommendations related to national security to the President.
Moreover, the Committee recommended providing Speaker Nasheed with security details that match with the level of threat against him, including maintaining 24-hour security and 24-hour CCTV surveillance near his residence.
Stating that a lot of hard work was done in compiling the report, MP Aslam thanked all Committee members for their work.
Notably, including with all the recommendations, the report was passed unanimously with all 13 members of the Commission voting in favour.
MP Aslam assured that the report will be publicised as soon as the remaining administrative details are completed.
