Ex-President Nasheed Survives Assassination Bid Sri Lanka's PLOTE In Coup Against Gayoom

Mohamed Nasheed born on May 17, 1967 to a middle-class family is the fourth and the first democratically elected President of the Maldives [2008 - 2012] and current Speaker of the People’s Majlis since May 2019. Nasheed, an old boy of an Overseas School Colombo, founded the Maldivian Democratic Party and defeated President Abdul Gayoom, an old Royalist who had governed the archipelago as president for 30 years. Nasheed was instrumental in defeating President Yameen in the 2018 election.

- KKS Perera

Weeks of protests by the opposition joined by a majority of military and police, compelled Nasheed to resign as president. Nasheed was convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act In March 2015, for arresting Criminal Court Judge Abdulla Mohamed and sentenced to 13 years. Being arrested prosecuted and jailed a couple of times he sought and was given asylum in the United Kingdom in 2016, where he had gone for medical treatment. After his friend, relative, and party’s candidate, Ibrahim Solih, won presidential elections in 2018, Nasheed returned to the Maldives, where he won the seat for Machangolhi Medhu constituency in parliamentary elections and took office as Speaker of parliament.

President Nasheed who created the first ever Islamic Ministry in the Maldives, with a cabinet post representing it had sustained injuries in the blast occurred outside his family home in the night which left him in a critical condition and was receiving treatment in the capital Male. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack. Nasheed, 53, known famously as a champion in the battle against climate change and a critic of religious extremism in the largely Sunni Muslim nation had sustained several wounds. Within a week Police arrested the ‘key suspect’ in the attack and blamed it on Islamic extremists. Our neighboring archipelago of 343,000 people has a number of extremists militant groups who fought in Iraq and Syria alongside the IS armed group.