Maldivian students released on bail after stabbing in Sri Lanka

Three Maldivian students were arrested in Sri Lanka last Thursday after a fight at the Daybridge International School in Colombo.

Mohamed Hussain Shareef, the Maldivian ambassador to Sri Lanka, told the Maldives Independent that three teenage boys were injured in the altercation, including two Maldivians and a Sri Lankan.

“The wounds were not that deep. The doctors wanted to check for infections but once they realised it was not serious, they stitched up the wounds and released them to the ward,” he said.

The fight occurred between two Maldivian students, one of whom was armed with a scissor and accompanied by a group of Sri Lankan students. The other was backed by five Maldivian boys.

Three Sri Lankan students were also arrested after the violence outside the school.

All six were released on bail Friday with orders to appear in court later this month, according to the ambassador, and the police have also taken statements for their investigation.

“This quarrel has been going on for some time but the involvement of the scissor made it more serious than a playground fight between school kids,” he said.

Shareef said he has met with some of the parents of the students involved in the fight as well as with the parents of other Maldivian students who go to the school.

Most Maldivian parents did not send their kids to school Friday, he noted.

“Since they are juveniles, there wouldn’t be a big sentence,” Shareef said. “I will meet with the school’s director to see what kind of disciplinary measures will be taken in this matter.”

More than 15,000 Maldivians reside in Sri Lanka and thousands travel to the neighbouring island nation every year for vacation and medical treatment.

In November 2015, a 28-year-old Maldivian national was murdered in Sri Lanka. Hussain Razeen ‘Rabarey’ – a prime suspect in the fatal stabbing of Ali Ishar in December 2007, a killing that sparked a cycle of gang-related murders in the capital Malé –  was killed on a contract of RS140 million (US$1 million).