Maldives Police Service (MPS) has arrested six individuals in connection to their ongoing counter-terrorism operation.
The operation was provoked by a tip-off to the Police Intelligence Unit that a group of individuals supporting extremist ideologies were plotting acts of terrorism in the country. However, police had foiled their terror plot.
The operation is being conducted in Maldives capital, Malé City, Malé atoll region’s waters and Thimarafushi island of Thaa atoll, during which police officers arrested three individuals on a boat, two individuals from Thimarafushi island and one from the capital city.
All of the arrested individuals are aged between 18 and 34.
This comes at a time the authorities had placed a Maldivian arrested and remanded under suspicion of having taken part in terrorist activities in Syria, at the National Reintegration Centre, established in Himmafushi island of Kaafu Atoll as the first ever detainee at the center.
The detainee is a suspected terror fighter who fought alongside jihadist outfits in Syria and returned to Maldives, on October 15.
The 34-year-old Maldivian man is evidently on the police’s potential list of local Foreign Terrorist Fighters or FTFs, according to Commissioner of Police Mohamed Hameed.
In December last year, the government revealed that a special center designated to rehabilitate local terror fighters would be established. Under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the government established the temporary detention center for such cases, the first of its kind.
Latest findings of the police institute reveal that 173 Maldivians had travelled to join the Syrian conflict, through numerous terror groups.
A number of them have since been requesting to return home, mostly local widows and orphans. Due to lack of written documentation, authorities earlier stressed that it would be a challenge to bring the women and children stranded in Syrian camps.
Earlier, Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih revealed that the talks were underway to move Maldivian refugees displaced in Syrian camps to another country and that they will be placed in rehabilitation upon return, where a risk assessment will be carried out to determine if they are worthy of reintegration.
While many Maldivians have in the past become casualties of the Syrian war, many are involved in terrorist groups and thus are deemed a national threat as there is a possibility of crisis in Maldives.
