The Maldives on Wednesday signed an agreement with an Indian university to raise public awareness on terrorism and violent extremism.
Under the agreement, Lovely Professional University of India will run programmes to increase public awareness across the country and train personnel from the Maldives National Defence Force and law enforcement authorities to combat radicalism and terrorism.
Speaking after signing the agreement, Defence Minister Adam Shareef Umar said that “raising public awareness is essential to effectively combat terrorism and violent extremism.”
He said “the government attaches high priority to provide counterterrorism training to officers from security forces in order to strengthen the fight against terrorism.”
As part of the government’s counterterrorism efforts, the Counter Terrorism Centre is already conducting a national campaign to increase awareness on terrorism and violent extremism.