Violence erupted in the Maldives yesterday as supporters of the ex-president who claims he was forced out by a coup clashed with security forces in Male and stormed cop shoppes on outlying islands.Local officials on four atolls in the holiday paradise nation told AFP that residents overran several cop shoppes and set fire to government buildings.
The attacks followed festivities in the capital Male where protesters, some throwing stones, fought army and police in riot gear who fired tear gas and used batons to disperse several thousand people in the city's Republic Square.
It is the worst unrest since festivities in 2003 following the death of an inmate at the hands of security forces, an event which sparked the process of democratic change on the islands in the Indian Ocean.
Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first elected president who resigned on Tuesday, told AFP he suspected new president Mohamed Waheed had known about a plot to overthrow him involving rebel army and coppers.
"I am afraid he's always entertained an idea to become the president... When the opportunity was available to him, he took it," the 44-year-old said of his former vice president -- from a different party -- who denies the allegation.
The ousted president said he was forced out of power at gunpoint and urged his successor to step down.
"Yes, I was forced to resign at gunpoint," Nasheed told news hounds after his party meeting a day after his resignation.
"There were guns all around me and they told me they would not hesitate to use them if I did not resign," he said.
Nasheed, 44, was later injured along with other senior members of his Maldivian Democratic Party during a rally in the capital, with family members saying he was beaten by police.