Maldives Police Service (MPS) says that the agency did fail in preventing the disruption of Yoga Day event in Male’.
The event was held at dawn last Tuesday in National Football stadium, in collaboration with Indian Cultural Centre and Youth Ministry.
A group of youth, carrying flags displaying “I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah” in Arabic, had interrupted the event. They had called on the event participants to leave the area.
In Monday’s press conference, Central Policing Command’s Assistant Commissioner of Ali Shujau said that MPS previously had better crowd control, as seen from other protests. He admitted that a security breach had occurred that day and that it was a security failure on part of MPS.
He added that MPS was compiling an inquiry on the security breach and that it would be published soon. He confirmed that both Police Board and National Integrity Commission were looking into the case.
Shujau said that MPS had already responded to the queries raised by the Presidential Committee to review the breach.