The island nation of Maldives is jittery after the arrest of its Vice-president Ahmed Adeeb on charges of conspiring to kill President Abdulla Yameen.
Security has been tightened at the luxury tourist resorts across Maldivian islands even as the probe into Adeeb's role in an explosion aboar the President's speedboat, which injured the First Lady, presses ahead.
Foreign minister Dunya Maumoon said on Tuesday that searches were ongoing for explosives following the 28 September explosion aboard the presidential craft as it docked in the capital, Male, AFP reported.
"We can reassure and say that even learning from this [boat] incident itself, we have tightened and strengthened security in the resorts," foreign minister Maumoon told AFP by telephone from Male. She added that tourism, which accounts for over a quarter of the country's GDP and remains a key source of foreign exchange, was not a target for violence.
Maldives' capital island of Male has seen turmoil and anti-government protests for many years now. More than a million tourists visit this nation of 1,192 small coral islands with beautiful beaches. It is a draw as a getaway location for celebrities and for film crews as a locale.
Maumoon insisted that tourists are safe in the Maldives when it was drawn to her attention that Australia had issued a directive telling its citizens to be careful when going to the Maldives due to the possibility of civil unrest and the threat of terrorist attacks".
"We should not over-exaggerate this particular [boat] incident," she said. "The country has largely been very peaceful and tourists have been safe. There has not been any targeting of tourism."
Maumoon's concern is obvious because opposition parties have vowed to disrupt the tourism industry. Unrest has been rife in the Maldives since its first democratically elected leader, Mohamed Nasheed, was jailed for 13 years in an episode whichpeople saw to be a 'fixed' trial.
