A 14-year-old boy in Maldives died on Saturday when President Mohammed Muizzu allegedly refused to give permission to use the Dornier aircraft provided by India to airlift him. There has been strong opposition to this decision of the President in Maldives.
Relations between Maldives and India have turned sour. This came at a time when Maldivian ministers had made derogatory remarks against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since then the tension has been continuously increasing. Now a wrong decision of Maldives President Mohammed Muizzu has taken the life of a child. The 14 year old child had to use Indian helicopters for medical emergency, for which the Maldives government did not give permission. Due to this, the child died due to delay in treatment.
India has previously provided two naval helicopters and one Dornier aircraft to Maldives for medical evacuation and other High Availability Disaster Recovery (HARD) activities. According to Maldivian media, the boy had a brain tumor and had suddenly suffered a stroke. His condition was serious. The family had requested an air ambulance to take him from his home in Gaff Alif Vilingili to the capital city Male. The family alleges that the authorities failed to arrange immediate medical airlift.
No response given for air ambulance
According to Maldivian media, the father of the deceased boy says that he called Island Aviation to take him to Male immediately after the stroke, but they did not answer our call. He answered the phone at 8:30 am on Thursday. Air ambulance is the only solution for such cases. The boy was brought to Male 16 hours after requesting an emergency airlift, but by then it was too late.
Here, due to the Maldivian government's insistence on sending back Indian soldiers, the fate of Indian helicopters and planes is in limbo. President Mohammad Muizzu has asked India to withdraw its troops by March 15. However, Indian officials say that talks are still going on to find a solution to the issue.
President's decision is being protested in Maldives
Not using Indian helicopters is also being criticized in Maldives. Maldives Defense Minister Mohammed Ghassan said that 93 percent of the evacuations were still being carried out by Maldives Airlines. Ghassan said in a post on social media X that SOPs (standard operating procedures) of medical operations do not need to be notified or permission taken from the President. This is done through coordination of the concerned institutions. Maldives MP Mikail Ahmed Naseem says that people should not pay the price of their lives to satisfy the President's hostility towards India.
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