Maldivian Defence Minister fired

Maldivian Defence Minister Musa Ali Jaleel has been removed from his post with immediate effect, according to reports from Malé.

This sudden move is the outcome of on-going investigations into the recent bomb attack against the Maldivian President in which the President narrowly escaped while his wife suffered injuries, the Sunday Observer learns.

These moves come in the wake of advice given to the Maldivian government by investigators from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Sri Lankan police currently helping Malé to probe what is now termed as an assassination attempt against President Abdulla Yameen on September 28.

Authoritative Maldivian sources told the Sunday Observer that based on the advice of the FBI and Sri Lankan investigators, the Maldivian government has made "serious progress" with regard to the assassination attempt.

As a first step, two security guards were arrested, before the removal of the powerful defence minister.

As an immediate measure, presidential security has been beefed up. Sri Lankan sleuths, probing the incident in Male since October 1 have helped establish the explosion on Yameen's presidential yatch as a 'targeted attack.'

"There is already a separate presidential security division - the first of its kind in the Maldives, largely styled according to Sri Lanka's Presidential Security Department (PSD),"a senior Maldivian political source said.

At the time of the bomb explosion, President Yameen was travelling to Male, the Maldivian capital, with his wife Fathimath, after their annual Haj pilgrimage. While Yameen was unhurt, his wife was injured and is currently undergoing treatment.