MDP activists harass and terrorize Minister of Finance at Party Activity Centre

A large number of activists of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) were seen last night, forcing the Minister of Finance Ahmed Inaaz into the MDP Activity Centre at Ameeny Magu, Malé and terrorizing him and harassing him. The activists formed a circle around him and seemed to have committed assault and battery against the Minister, who is himself a member of MDP.

MDP activists cornered the Minister into a corner of the open-spaced Activity Centre as Sun Reporters witnessed. A number of Police tried to enter the Centre and protect the Minister, but were deterred by MDP activists, and ordered to leave the place. The police waited outside for a while and went away, leaving the Minister to the mercy of MDP activists.

MDP Vice President and parliamentarian Alhan Fahmy was at the scene also. He was next to Inaaz, but he did not say a word even when the activists appeared to attack and injure Inaaz at any minute.

MDP activists were heard shouting that they had brought Inaaz when they saw him with Abdullah Yamin in the latter’s car. Abdullah Yamin is the brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Qayyoom, and MP for Mulaku Constituency and one of the most prominent leaders of PPM, the newly rising major opposition in the country.

MDP activists shouted that Inaaz was running the government in accordance with the orders of Yamin, and that that he was destroying the government from within. They swore at him by using immoral and obscene words and expressions, and continuously threatened that he could get away from them and out of the Centre only after resigning from the Cabinet.

“We do not need such deceptive … as you in the government. You can leave this place only after your resignation. Nobody shall enter this place to try to solve this matter; we, the activists of MDP, are red with anger, and we shall deal with this matter on our own. We gave you this position because we trusted you”, the activists were heard shouting.

Inaaz did not give any replies to the threats and demands made by his Party’s activists, and when he was left alone after a long time of terrorizing, he went home in a scooter with Dhonbileh Ahmed Haleem, a senior member of MDP.

When asked by Sun Reporters whether he wanted to say anything about the matter, Inaaz said that “politicians would meet politicians, and I do not have anything more to say”.

Ahmed Shiyam, Police Media Official said last night that they had had reports of some violence perpetrated against the Minister of Finance though they had “not received any details about what was done to him and where”.