Maldives Police Service, on Thursday, announced the commencement of an operation to tackle the surge of gang violence across the country.
Police issued a press release assuring that investigations of recent gang violence cases are being taken seriously and that every effort is being made to apprehend those responsible for committing the crimes.
Although the statement did not reveal specific details regarding the operation, it further guaranteed that individuals guilty of perpetrating or encouraging violent crimes would be harshly penalised.
The press release stated that the police would "not allow anyone to portray Male’ or any other island as unsafe".
While three violent assaults occurred in the past month, the most recent case of gang violence resulted in the murder of 14-year-old Ismail Shaffan Shareef during the early hours of Thursday. In addition to this, a 26-year-old man was stabbed the previous day. The man in question remains in critical condition along with a victim that was stabbed in Addu City earlier this week.
Nine suspects have been arrested in connection to the stabbings that took place this week.
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