Targeting Tourists

Twelve foreign  tourists-- eight Chinese, two Japanese and two British--were injured  in an explosion on September 29,2007, in a park near the mainmosque in the Maldives capital of Male. It is not yet known whether the Chinesewere from mainland China or elsewhere. Nor is it known whether the explosionspecifically targeted the foreign tourists or whether the tourists just happenedto be near the scene when the explosion took place. The local police, however,seem to suspect that the blast was meant to target foreign tourists and affectthe flow of tourists to the country. So far, no one has claimed responsibilityfor the blast.

The  Friends of Maldives (FOM), a non-Governmental organisation, whichhas been supporting the pro-democracy movement in the Islands, has stronglyrefuted insinuations allegedly made by  President Abdul  Gayoom and a Government spokesman that the  FOM, which, according to them, hasbeen carrying on a Boycott of Tourism to the Maldives campaign, might have been behind the  blast. In a statement, Mr David Hardingham,  the founderof the FOM, has stated as follows: 

"The   FOM has never requested tourists NOT to visit theMaldives. The FOM campaign asks tourists to choose a resort not closelyassociated with the repressive Regime of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. FOM understands that the bombing has potentially significant ramifications forthe Maldives tourism industry and in solidarity with the people of the Maldives,the FOM has decided on a temporary suspension  of the FOM Selected ResortsBoycott Campaign.  This will be reviewed at the end of October 2007. TheFOM  maintains the importance of the installation of a liberal anddemocratic Maldives where tourism and free enterprise can flourish and prosper. The current dictatorship and their refusal to allow a real democracy and respectfor human rights will continue to create an environment where criminal activityand extremism will flourish.  The international community must be moreactive in this regard."

According to the local media, the improvised explosive device (IED) used inthe blast consisted of a gas cylinder, a washing machine motor and a mobiletelephone. It is not yet clear whether the mobile telephone was used as a remotecontrol device or as a timer. Automobile fuel, gas cylinders and mobiletelephones were also used by the jihadi terrorists--one of them an Indian Muslimfrom Bangalore-- who attempted to stage terrorist strikes in London and Glasgowin the last week of  June,2007. The Maldivian Police claim to have detainedtwo persons for questioning. They are also reportedly examining the pictures inthe Closed Circuit TV cameras installed in the park.

Since 9/11, there have been reports of the spread of fundamentalist ideas tothe Maldives from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. In 2002,  a 28-year-oldMaldivian national named Ibrahim Fauzee was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, andtaken to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba by the US' Federal Bureauof Investigation (FBI) on suspicion of his having links with Al Qaeda. As hisinterrogation did not confirm this suspicion, the FBI sent him to the Madives.He lives in Male and is subject to regular police surveillance.

In the spring of 2006, the Maldivian authorities announced the arrest in SriLanka of three Maldivians—two women and a man—who  were allegedly ontheir way to a jihadi training camp  in Pakistan, but they were notprosecuted for want of satisfactory evidence. Fatimah Nisreen, a policeman'sdaughter, was accused of helping them  to go to Pakistan, but she refutedthis allegation.

Ahmed Shah, a Maldivian national, was reported to have attended a trainingcamp of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) at Muridke, near Lahore. He was deported tothe Maldives by the Pakistani authorities.In April last year, seven youngMaldivians  were arrested by the Maldives Police on a charge of encouraging other Maldivians to wage jihad abroad, but they were not prosecutedfor want of evidence.

Himendhoo, one of the outlying islands, has been described as  a centrefor Wahabism. A Hindu school teacher working in the island was allegedly beatenup badly by Wahabi elements last year.

For over a year now, the local Wahabis of the island have been refusing toobey  Ibrahim Abrahman, the Government-appointed chief cleric in theisland. They have declined to pray in the Government-maintained mosque. Theyconstructed their own mosque, which was demolished by the Government. They builtanother. Cassettes containing the video and audio messages of Osama bin Ladenand his No.2 .Ayman al-Zawahiri freely circulate in the island and nearbyislands. Some students from the island, who were studying in the Lal Masjid ofIslamabad, were reported to have recently returned home after the Lal Masjid wasraided by the Pakistani commandos between July 10 and 13,2007. They have alsobeen spreading stories of what is projected as the glorious martyrdom of thegirl students of the Lal Masjid's madrasa for girls.

Saudi money has funded the construction of a high school in Male, called theIslamic Studies Institute, where the students are taught , inter alia, theArabic language. This is becoming another centre for the spread of Wahabism.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has also been using the Maldivesas a transit point for its arms smuggling activities for many years. There werereports of the Maldivian authorities co-operating with the Sri Lankan Navy insome of its recent operations to disrupt arms smuggling by the LTTE. Thus, theLTTE has reasons for anger against the Maldivian authorities.

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies.