Mahfooz, a member of former president Mohamed Nasheed's legal team, was stabbed in the left side of his head while he was on his motorbike on Friday in capital Male. The knife had missed his eye-socket by a few millimetres.

He underwent a three-hour long surgery Saturday at the state-run Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), which had said that he was out of danger after the surgery.

A relative, who wished to remain anonymous, told Haveeru Monday that the surgery was carried out to remove the knife that had got wedged in Mahfooz’s head in the stabbing. His condition is improving, though he still remains at the hospital, the relative said.

According to his family, Mahfooz was stabbed outside the Vaadhee Fresh grocery shop on Maaveyo Magu in Maafannu district. He had reportedly parked his motorcycle at a parking zone near the shop when two people on a GN-branded motorcycle attacked him and fled.

“He was on his way to his mother’s place. We don’t know who the attackers were,” the family member told Haveeru.

Mahfooz’s stabbing had taken a political twist due to him being a defence lawyer of former president Nasheed, who also leads the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom and the country’s independent human rights body had condemned the attack. The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) also called on authorities to fast track the investigation and deliver swift justice.

The government, meanwhile, had vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.

(haveeru.com.mv)