Maaz Saleem and four others arrested for taking hostages

Council Member of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Ahmed Saleem (Maaz Saleem) and four other people were arrested following an incident at the airport last night, where they had allegedly assaulted an airport ferryboat captain and detained two police officers against their will.

Providing details of last night's events, Police said that Maaz Saleem had ordered a group of people to assault a ferryboat captain after accusing him of stealing an iPad, which Saleem claimed to have been was inside his bag as he returned to Maldives around 12:30 a.m. They also said that Saleem and his men had hijacked the captain's boat, which included two police officers who were responding to the assault, along with a number of other passengers who were onboard to go to Male’ from the airport.

Police said that shortly after reports of the hijacking, more police officers had attended scene at the airport and had brought the ferry and the people onboard under their custody. They also took the injured ferryboat captain for treatment, who was also later taken into their custody, they said.

Police said that excluding Maaz Saleem and the ferry boat captain, they currently have three others under their custody and that they are also investigating the hostage case, in addition to the assault.