MALDIVIAN President Abdulla Yameen on Tuesday (November 10) lifted with immediate effect the State of Emergency, a week after it was imposed citing threat to national security and giving sweeping powers to security forces while suspending the right to freedom of movement and assembly.
"State of Emergency (SoE) originally announced for 30 days from 4th November 2015. Now it ends on 10th November with immediate effect," a Foreign Ministry statement said in Male, maintaining that the overall security situation in the country has improved after the action taken by the security forces.
It mentioned that the President also took into consideration, calls by friendly governments and international organisations to lift the emergency. The US, the Commonwealth and Sri Lanka had called on the island nation to lift emergency.
With the lifting of the emergency, all fundamental rights that were suspended, have been restored. The emergency was declared by Yameen on November 4 for a period of 30 days after the government in Male asserted that the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) and the Maldives Police discovered a large cache of arms in two different locations in the Maldives.
"The security forces believe that some weapons and ammunitions are still missing, and that the security forces have information that some individuals are planning to use these weapons and ammunition, which poses a serious threat to the people and to national security," a Presidential statement had said while declaring emergency.
