Maldives Police Service has said Saturday that one of those arrested in connection with the unrests in Gaafu Dhaalu atoll Fares Maathodaa has been released from police custody while five others have been brought to Male for investigation.

Chief Inspector Ibrahim Khaleel said Saturday that one of the five who have been arrested was arrested in connection with the case of holding back the team which went to Fares Maathoda to survey harbor deepening work. The other four, Khaleel said, were arrested for disrupting the work of the police investigation team.

When police arrested one man from the island Thursday matters got worse and erupted into unrest. When the unrest endangered police and the Fares Maathodaa people police used stun grenades and pepper spray.

“We were home working. Suddenly we heard a loud sound and when we went to see what had happened we could not believe what we saw. The people of Fares and Maathodaa were gathered around the jetty. Police were there. We saw the people shouting at the police and throwing their hands towards the police. We also saw police clashing people and apprehending them,” said a Fares man on condition his name is not published with this article since the atmosphere in the island is tense.

A Maathodaa woman said that some people went out against the police because the action (the holding back of the survey team) was done by many people and police were just arresting only one.

“The matter then changed violent and erupted into unrests. Some even threw stones. Some had armed themselves with wooden bars. Many people of both sexes were there,” said the woman who wanted to remain anonymous.

Speaking to Television Maldives Friday night Chief Inspector Ahmed Faseeh said that a police investigation team went to Fares Maathodaa to investigate the detention of Construction Ministry’s survey team and the prevention of operation of the Island Office and that the police team took statements of the Island Office staff and arrested one person to which other islanders responded saying all of them must be arrested.

“Then the matter got worse and our investigation team police got attacked. The man who was being arrested also was getting hurt. That is why the team waiting by the island in a dhoni had to be used. We used stun grenades and pepper spray which was in our possession at that time. That for done for the safety of the police investigation team and the people of Fares Maathodaa,” Faseeh said.

“This (stun grenade) is also used in other countries of the world to disperse crowds. This causes no harm. The only thing is that it makes a loud sound.”

A man who was at the seaside of Maathodaa when the incident took place said that when a loud blast like sound came, the people started running away in different directions. Some people fell on the ground. He said that within that moment police arrested whom they wanted to arrest and took them to the dhoni and dispersed the crowd.

“I heard people saying that guns were being fired. Gun shots,” he said.

“Some people were hurt. In the aftermath of clashes both police and the islanders suffered injuries. Some people’s heads were busted open. Blood was apparent on various parts of the body of some. I also saw a policeman who had suffered many injuries.”

Police said that they did not shoot in the island and that they do not even have guns. But police said that six policemen were injured and one of them had suffered serious injuries. Police said that some people of the island were also injured one of them being a person arrested for investigations.

The root cause of the problem is that the harbor deepening work had not been done even six years after the decision to build a harbor in Fares Maathodaa which has a population of over 1,600 and the uneasiness felt by the islanders reached it’s peak when a survey team went to Fares Maathodaa on January one.

The islanders gathered protesting and it addition to that a banner on a dhoni near the island read: “We do not need surveys. We want a high mark and a tug.”

Survey technician of the Construction Ministry’s survey team Hussain Nisham said Saturday that Fares Maathodaa people did not directly say to them that they could not leave the island.

“We were not harmed in anyway. We went to talk to the islanders on the recommendation of police. That is because they have not said that we could not leave the island and whether it is ok if we leave. They said that they had no problem. Then we left the island is a small launch which police sent,” he said.

When MTCC, the company which carried out the harbor deepening work, was asked why they stopped the work Managing Director Ibrahim Athif said Saturday that they left the island to work in another island on the order of Public Works Ministry.

“We are the contractor. We do the work given to us,” Athif said.

Deputy Director of Ministry of Construction and Public Infrastructure Ali Amir said Saturday that he did know the reason why the tools used to work in Fares Maathoda to build the harbor were taken to another island.

Umar Zahir who was Minister of Construction when the work was done in Fares Maathodaa said that even though the work was done by Construction Ministry the work was halted by the Atolls Ministry.

Atoll Ministry’s Executive Director Mohamed Faarooq said Saturday that he did not think the working party would have been informed to stop the work before it was completed.