President Solih Links India Out Movement With Drug Traffickers

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has made statements that may be construed as linking the movement calling to remove the Indian military from the Maldives with the drug trade.

Speaking at a ceremony held in Gaafaru (Kaafu Atoll) to mark Fishermen’s Day, President Solih stated that “dangerous waves” from the world’s “changing tides” was crashing on the Maldives. He said that networks of drug traffickers, terrorists, weapons dealers, and smugglers were using Maldivian oceans.

He said that “criminals” involved in such activities were against the government’s co-operation with neighbouring countries to maintain regional security.

Cabinet ministers and parliamentarians of the ruling MDP have been pushing the claim that the grassroots “India Out” movement had been motivated to oppose India’s aiding of the Maldives in constricting drug trafficking.

Speaking along such lines, the President said that letting the number of boats smuggling drugs proliferate beyond the number of local fishing vessels through the Maldives’ seas was no help to protecting national sovereignty or independence. He said that he would not allow such a proliferation to occur.

Officials of the MDP have maintained that maritime crime in the Indian Ocean can only be stopped through the stationing of the Indian military in the country.

In the early days of the “India Out” movement, the Solih administration had denied that any Indian military personnel were present in the Maldives. After their presence had been admitted, the new claim had been that the Indian military provided humanitarian services. More recently, the newest claim has it that the Indian military had been stationed to stop drug trafficking.