Raajje TV journalist Asward [Ibrahim Waheed] was brutally assaulted yesterday morning. He is now in critical condition at a hospital in Sri Lanka. On Wednesday, 20 February, he aired the above report on Raajje TV. It was a response to Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s statement the previous day that Mohamed Nasheed seeking refuge at the Indian High Commission was ‘shameful’. This is a translation of Asward’s script.
Download Ahmed Nazim Abdul Sattar’s translation of MP Eva Abdulla’s: Unreformed and Unrepentant The Maldives Judiciary, Dhivehi Translation.
by Azra Naseem
Last Sunday night Lance Corporal Adam Haleem was stabbed to death on the island of Kaashidhoo. He was en route to duty and in full uniform. He died from multiple stab wounds just after midnight. He was 26 years old, and the father of a son not yet a year old.
Before the young policeman’s body was cold, his death had become a political opportunity for many. Politicisation of life and death is not a new phenomenon in the Maldives. It was on the rise before the change of government on 7 February. But the extent to which the current ‘Unity Government’ of Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik is going, to squeeze every drop of political juice from the death of Lance Corporal Hameed, is a revolting spectacle to behold.
It was Dr Waheed himself who set the ball rolling.
Strongly condemn the killing of a policeman while on duty. Enough of hate mongering against officers of the Law.
— Mohamed Waheed (@DrWaheedH) July 22, 2012
What was this about hate-mongering? What did he mean? Was the policeman’s murder linked to the current political unrest? That was certainly the inference, as he reiterated shortly after:
No excuses to kill anyone let alone policemen on duty. Shame on cowards hiding behind anonymity and inciting violence.
— Mohamed Waheed (@DrWaheedH) July 22, 2012