Officers of the Maldives Police Service (MPS) need to be more civilized than they are now, the Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) deputy leader Mohamed Shifaz has said.

The former parliamentarian said at a joint opposition rally, primarily held to welcome MP Ahmed Mahloof who served a prison sentence of over 10 months on charges of obstructing law enforcement, that the police must work to acquire the trust of the common people.

He further said that he does not officers carrying out duties as dictated by Maldivian law.

“What we are seeing are arrests made based on intelligence reports, although there is not one single person that sees what the report says or knows what it says, there needs to be more transparent procedures than this” he said.

Shifaz added that there are dozens of convicted individuals in prisons who are treated unfairly, and were sentenced unfairly as well.

Former MP Shifaz then said that opposition leaders will not back down no matter how unjust attempts at hindering their reform work becomes.

Members of the police’s special operations unit had attempted to disband the rally on Friday night. They had arrested some of the supporters gathered near the rally site and used pepper spray on them.