Two stabbed in 24 hours amid spike in gang violence

A young man was stabbed on a busy street in Malé around 4pm today amid growing concern over a recent spike in gang violence.

According to local media, the 19-year-old was stabbed in the stomach and the head outside the Sangu TV studio on Janavareemagu.

He was undergoing treatment at the ADK hospital at the time of publication.

An ADK spokesman told local media that his injuries were serious.

The stabbing follows the arrest of two minors and a man earlier today after a 21-year-old man was stabbed Monday night in a fight between rival gangs in Malé.

The fight broke out around 10pm near the Nooru mosque in the Henveiru ward of the capital, the police said.

The victim was rushed to the ADK hospital with stab wounds to the hand and head. According to local media, the man’s injuries are not life-threatening and his condition is now improving.

The police meanwhile asked for public assistance today in locating two suspects wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of two 14-year-old boys on June 3.

The two boys were killed in a fight between rival gangs in Malé. They were the youngest victims of gang-related murders in the Maldives.

Seven suspects, including six minors and one adult, have so far been arrested over the murders.

The two additional suspects wanted by the police are Ibadath Latheef, 15, from Gaaf Dhaal Thinadhoo, and Irufan Rushdy, 21, from Kuriruhge in Malé.

Members of the public were urged to share information on their whereabouts with the serious and organised crime department.

The fatal stabbings followed several gang fights in Malé during the past two months.

But Home Minister Umar Naseer had claimed days before the murders that police efforts to prevent assaults and stabbings were producing results.

While the number of assaults reported to police during the first five months of 2016 had declined, some 87 cases were reported last month, up from 71 in May 2015.

Some 23 cases of assault have been reported so far this month.

After the fatal stabbings, Naseer blamed juvenile delinquency on “blind love” from parents and announced plans to send off minors involved in gangs to a police training facility on the island of Vaanee in Dhaalu Atoll.

Suspected gang members are also being monitored through electronic tags, a measure introduced in the new anti-terrorism law, he said.

Some 10 young men were meanwhile arrested in Addu City after a gang fight in the southernmost atoll last Saturday left five people injured.

Of the five victims, four were treated at the Hithadhoo regional hospital and one was flown to Malé with head injuries.

None of the victims sustained serious injuries.