Raajje TV reporter Ibrahim ‘Asward’ Waheed yesterday (April 19) returned to the Maldives following major surgery in Sri Lanka after being attacked with an iron rod in February.
Asward told local media he was very happy to return to the Maldives and added that the attack on him was an attack on media. He told local media that he would remain undeterred in his role as a journalist.
Asward, 22, is news head of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)-aligned broadcaster Raajje TV. He was attacked with an iron rod at 1:18am on February 23 while riding a motorbike near the artificial beach area of Male’.
Commissioner of Police Abdulla Riyaz described the attack via Twitter as a murder attempt.
The attack left Asward unconscious. He was later transferred to a hospital in Sri Lanka for treatment, where he had to undergo major surgery last month to correct a maxillary fracture (broken jawbone).
Police submitted cases against two suspects to the Prosecutor General’s Office April 16
on charges of assaulting Asward in February. The investigation into the murder attempt remains ongoing.