Protesters in the capital city of Male’ gathered in the Artificial Beach area last night for a sixth night of protests, ahead of a major demonstration planned for today after Friday prayers.
The opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) maintains the protests are ‘youth led’ demonstrations against rising commodity prices, brought on by the government’s decision to implement a managed float of the rufiya.
Haveeru reported that despite warning demonstrators to remain in the open artifical beach area, police treatment of demonstrators was relaxed compared to previous evenings.
Groups of protesters split from the main group and attempted to gather in the intersection used as the focus of the protesters this week, but were dispersed by police.
Dismissed deputy DRP leader Umar Naseer and several DRP MPs, including Ali Arif and Ahmed Mahloof, were briefly detained by police, and protests dissipated around 1:30am.