Pro-Nasheed protesters clash with police in Maldives

Hundreds of supporters of the ousted President Mohamed Nasheed gathered outside the Majlis for a second time in the day today raising slogans against the current regime of Mohammed Waheed Hassan.

The protesters assembled outside the Majlis (parliament) an hour after the riot police dispersed them from the venue where as per the Maldivian's law no protest march is allowed.

Earlier, protesters numbering around 400 along with 15 MPs of Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party gathered outside the Majlis after a lull of over two days since the protests that began after Nasheed's resignation on Tuesday.

Over 150 anti-riot police personnel armed with batons and pepper spray pushed the protesters back after over an hour of standoff with them.

Shouting slogans against the current president, the protesters threw money at the police. A few water bottles were also thrown at the police who set up barricades on the street leading to Majlis to stop protesters.

About half a dozen protesters were detained. "We have been keeping much restrain. We just want this area to be cleared as protests are not allowed on the street," a senior police official told PTI.

The protests comes on the day when new President Hassan inducted seven members into his expanded cabinet, including the country's first woman Attorney General and an aide of former dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
An European Union team from Colombo is expected to land here tonight to take stock of the situation. Maldives' first democratically-elected president had said that he was forced to resign as gun-wielding military men threatened that they would resort to using arms if he did not.