Home minister defends police as MPs warn of ‘deep state’

All state institutions could do better but it cannot be said that police have “failed,” the home minister contended.

Contrary to repeated assertions by Speaker Mohamed Nasheed and other ruling party lawmakers about a “deep state” or “dark state” of radicals in strategic positions, Imran said he did not believe that extremists or terrorist sympathisers within the security forces were to blame for the perceived lack of action.

“There aren’t any people within the police with extremist ideology that we have noted. And we remind the leaders of the [security] services to constantly look to see whether there are such people, and if they are there, we have said very clearly even yesterday that it won’t be tolerated,” he told lawmakers.