A Maldivian journalist was seriously injured by unidentified attackers Saturday shortly after covering an opposition rally in the capital Male, an opposition spokesman said.
Ibrahim Waheed of Raaje TV is being treated in the intensive care unit of a private hospital in neighbouring Sri Lanka, where he is due to undergo surgery.
The attack occurred after an opposition protest in support of deposed Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed, who has taken cover in the Indian High Commission in Male after a judge ordered his arrest for failing to attend a court hearing.
Nasheed, who in 2008 became the Maldives' first democratically-elected president in decades, is accused of ordering the illegal arrest of a senior judge when he was in office.
Supporters of Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) suspect that the government is using the judiciary to prevent him from contesting the September 7 presidential elections.