Suspicion of outsiders grows in Maalhos murder case

Ismail Naseer who has been the President of the AA. Maalhos Council for three terms has said he is stunned by the events that occurred on Saturday to AbduRahman Adam, from Orchidmaage, Maalhos. He said stated that no island residents come to mind when talking about suspects for the crime committed.

He has said that Maalhos, an island with a population of 450, has had no trouble with crime or drugs.

"It has to be some kind of record that this island has had no sort of robbery. Neighboring islands have to keep something as simple as cement locked up, while in Maalhos you can just leave anything out in the open road no matter how expensive, and no one would bat an eye," said the Council President.

Residents of the island agree that no one from Maalhos could have done such a thing, and so the suspicion falls to people who are not native to Maalhos. However, the Council President has stated that on the day and night of the crime, there were no obvious clues as to whether there were no non-residents on the island.

It's been confirmed that there was a boat from Lh. Naifaru and another boat from K. Guraidhoo docked at the island's port.

"Those boats had already been docked long before the crime had occurred," said Ismail.

When Maalhos had issues with drugs years ago, there were people who would use dinghy's to dock the island from the beachside of the island where they would conduct "operations" to bring drugs on the island.

"I am sure there aren't that many people from other islands here. And that house [Mahiya, where AbduRahman lived] is at the very back of the island as well, making it possible for someone to get close via dinghy and come onto the island near that house. But it is quite hard to confirm if we didn't get a warning of such a thing occurring. According to how vessels enter the harbour it shouldn't be possible as well," said the Council President.

"I am quite surprised by this whole incident."

The focus of the police investigating the murder of AbduRahman is now on the outer edges of the island, along with the beachside area. A search has begun this afternoon at 'Olhumathi' - the beach area adjacent to Huras Magu, not far from AbduRahman's house. It is believed that if someone were to come onto the island via dinghy, that would be the place to do it.

"But it would be quite difficult to come onto the island if the waves were quite rough that night," a resident of Maalhos has said.

When word reached the Council President Ismail that AbduRahman had suffered such extreme injuries at 1:10 am on Saturday night, he was the first one to visit AbduRahman's household.

The 65-year-old was in his room with grave injuries. Upon seeing the extent of AbduRahman's injuries, the first thought occurred to the Council President was that this may have been a pre-meditated effort.

"It seemed like there was a lot of planning involved when I saw those injuries. But because nothing of this scale has ever happened here before, I am not sure as to what type of situation to connect this to or what could have been the cause of this," Ismail stated.

The Council President stated that someone had hit AbduRahman on the back of the head with quite a bit of force and that a lot of blood had been spilled out.

"The amount of blood loss was staggering. I think he may had died due to blood loss," Ismail said.

One of the things that caught people's attention was the fact that AbduRahman and his wife, Nazima Ibrahim were sleeping in two separate rooms. Nazima told Mihaaru News that she went to use his rooms bathroom as she usually does when she happened upon the scene, and that someone had harmed her husband.

The couple’s second child Nimal and the health centre’s ambulance driver, Nimal’s wife, also live in the same house. But last week Nimal had to go abroad and moved his wife to her home island, Ukulhas, according to some residents.

"When Nimal was leaving, he had told AbduRahman, there's a lot of expensive stuff in my room so please sleep there until I come back. But Nazima was the one to sleep in Nimal's room, with AbduRahman sleeping in his and his wife's room," said AbduRahman's closest friend Riza.

He said that even the day before AbduRahman's death, the couple had been living their life as normal.

As of now, the investigation being conducted by the Police has turned up no suspects and no details.

However, Council President Ismail said, in light of the "bitter experience" of Zakiyya murder case in Holhudhoo, the police would be able to solve the case if they used all means available.

"I am sure of it. This is an island with just 450 people. I believe that such a big incident that has occurred on an island with such a small population can be solved. The police have the ability to do so," said Ismail.