Soldiers Storm Maldives Mosque

More than 50 people have been arrested after hundreds of soldiers besieged a makeshift mosque on one of the small islands that make up the Maldives, it emerged yesterday.

Security forces stormed the Dhar-ul-Khair mosque on Himandhoo island, after a policeman had been captured by "70 masked men" carrying swords and iron rods. In the ensuing battle one soldier suffered head injuries and a policeman lost his hand.

The showdown comes just a week after tourists, including a British couple, were caught in a bomb blast on the capital island Male. Himandhoo is one of the 1,190 islands that make up the tourist paradise of the Maldives and lies 50 miles from Male.

Government officials say that they have become increasingly aware that a section of Himandhoo's population, which numbers just 600, were becoming increasingly radicalized.

"Although the Maldives has practiced a peaceful and tolerant Islam we knew of increasing extremism [in Himandhoo] because local resorts were no longer sending tourists there," said Mohammed Shareef, a spokesman for the government.

There have been reports that groups of Maldivians had traveled to Pakistan where they had fallen under the spell of radical preachers. However, Mr Shareef said he saw no "foreign hand at work".

"We are not sure of these things yet. The device in Male was an amateur one. We think it is more local," he said.

The islands are home to 330,000 Sunni Muslims who practice a liberal form of the religion, and authorities said the bomb attack was the first such incident.

Western officials told the Guardian that there were "credible reports of a mosque militia" working in the Maldives.

Political opponents say that President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who has been in power for three decades, has turned a blind eye to the increasing extremism in the Maldives. He has also been criticized for jailing opponents.

Hassan Saeed, the former attorney general who quit his post after he says his warnings about Islamic radicalism were ignored, said: "Although we have a history of moderation the population is not immune from events in Middle East and Iraq."