Minister travelled abroad to finalise efforts to form dog squad, says Home Ministry

Media Coordinator of Ministry of Home Affairs Thamzeel Abdul Samad has said that Minister of Home Affairs Umar Naseer is presently in The Netherlands, to finalise the efforts to form a police dog squad in the Maldives.

This comes after Umar failed to appear in court this morning, and Criminal Court warned that action will be taken against him if he does not appear in court on Thursday.

Thamzeel said that Umar departed to The Netherlands last night.

He informed that 15 dogs will be obtained from The Netherlands and taken to a training farm in Kandy, Sri Lanka, for three months.

“After this, a team of Maldivian police officers will travel to the farm for training for an additional 3 months. The dogs will be trained at the farm for a total of 6 months. The dogs will then be brought to the Maldives to form the squad.”

Thamzeel further said that as part of this visit, Umar will also work on acquiring a body scan machine to solve the country’s drug problem.

“Presently, people are searched only after they are suspected of carrying drugs. The body scan machine will be used to search everyone. Similar machines are in place at airports in the US,” said Thamzeel.

He said that Umar will visit Abu Dhabi and meet with his counterpart in Abu Dhabi to discuss obtaining additional equipment required by Maldives Police Service, before returning to Maldives.