Former Maldives president and current parliamentary speaker Mohamed Nasheed underwent more surgery Friday following an assassination attempt but his condition was described as stable.
The Indian Ocean archipelago’s first democratically elected leader was seriously injured when a device attached to a motorcycle was detonated as he got into a car in the capital late Thursday, an official said.
“Nasheed escaped an assassination attempt,” a Maldivian government official told AFP. “He is injured, but his condition is stable.”
The private ADK hospital said the 53-year-old required further surgery following a thorough assessment of his condition.
The hospital did not give further details, but a family member said shrapnel was removed from a lung and his liver.
“We are hopeful of a full recovery,” he said, adding that Nasheed was responsive and spoke with doctors as he was admitted. One of his bodyguards was also taken to hospital.
Officials said the motorcycle with the device attached was parked down the narrow lane leading to Nasheed’s home.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a close ally of Nasheed, said an investigation was under way as officials rushed to denounce the targeted attack on the country’s second most powerful figure.
“Cowardly attacks like these have no place in our society,” Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said in a tweet.
Messages of support for Nasheed poured in on Friday from neighboring India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as well as Western nations, which have strongly backed his pro-democracy movement and environmental activism.