A liberal blogger, Yameen Rasheed, was killed in Male, his family was quoted as saying on Sunday by AFP. Rasheed, who ran a news blog called The Daily Panic, was known for poking fun at politicians in the Sunni-dominated Maldives.
The 29-year-old was found with stab wounds in the stairwell of his apartment and succumbed to his injuries after being taken to the hospital, the report added. He is the third media personality to be targeted in the Maldives in the past five years. Blogger Ismail Rasheed, also known as Hilath, was stabbed and wounded by an unidentified attacker in 2012.
“With The Daily Panic, I hope to cover and comment upon the news, satirise the frequently unsatirisable politics of Maldives, and also provide a platform to capture and highlight the diversity of Maldivian opinion – especially content from other blogs and non-mainstream sources,” Rasheed had written in a blog post.
Exiled leader and former president Mohammed Nasheed, who is staunchly against the current regime led by Abdulla Yameen, condemned the attack on Rasheed and called for an impartial probe.
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