Former Maldives president, Mohamed Nasheed is in “critical condition” after undergoing multiple surgeries, following a bomb attack.

The 53-year-old current speaker of parliament was wounded in a bomb attack, after a bomb attached to a motorbike exploded as he was leaving his house in the capital, Male. Al Jazeera reports that according to residents, the blast was heard across the city.

Nasheed, who was about to get into his car, sustained several wounds in the blast. He was taken to hospital where he underwent multiple surgeries. The hospital tweeted, “Over the course of past 16 hours he had life-saving surgery on injuries to his head, chest, abdomen and limbs. He remains in a critical condition in intensive care.”

Al Jazeera reports that a multi-specialty medical team treated Nasheed after he had been brought in around 8:30pm on Friday.

Three of Nasheed’s bodyguards and two bystanders were also injured in the incident. One of them was a 70-year-old British national.

Police called the blast a “deliberate act of terror”. Maldivian officials and citizens took to social media to condemn the attack and wish Nasheed a speedy recovery.

Nasheed in 2008 became the Maldives’ first democratically elected president. In 2019, he went on to win a parliamentary election and became speaker, the second most powerful position in the country.

Umm Muhammed Umar