Mohamed Nasheed, 53, the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and the current president of parliament, was injured in the wake of a bomb explosion in the capital, Malé, on Thursday (6), according to authorities.
The politician was about to get in the car when a bomb hidden on a motorcycle exploded.
The explosion occurred near his home. He was taken to the hospital, and had some surgeries, and his condition is critical.
According to the hospital, the politician had “head, chest, abdomen and limb injuries” and was subjected to “a critical final procedure to save his life”.
The surgeries were successful and Nasheed “remains in critical condition in intensive care,” according to the statement.
One of the bodyguards was also hospitalized.
Maldivian police on Friday called the blast an act of terrorism, but no suspects have yet been identified.
No one took responsibility for the explosion, which revived security concerns in the Indian Ocean country.
“Nasheed escaped an assassination attempt,” a government official told the France-Presse news agency (AFP).
Security windows isolated the area where the attack took place.
Mohamed Nasheed became the first democratically elected president of the Maldives in the first multiparty changes in 2008.
In 2012 he was deposed in a coup d’état and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2015 on charges of terrorism, a verdict that was denounced by human rights associations as being politically motivated.
Authorized to leave prison for medical treatment, Mohamed Nasheed went into exile in the UK, but returned to the country in 2018 to become, in the advantages of 2019, president of parliament, the second position in the state.
