Maldives Police Detain Opposition Leader

Elections must be pending

Police in the Maldives detained opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed on Tuesday, defying pressure from regional power India which had called for him to be free to campaign for elections.

Twenty masked policemen in riot gear arrested Nasheed at his family home in the capital Male and one of his security men was hurt in the melee, Shauna Aminath, a spokeswoman for Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party, said.

Police served no arrest warrant on the pro-democracy activist, who was the first freely elected president until last year, she said.