Police seeks Interpol yellow notice to help locate Thasleem

The Maldives police have applied for an Interpol yellow notice to find a man who disappeared two weeks back after travelling to a sandbank in K. Atoll.

Thasleem Mohamed, 43, M. Asaree Handhaan, K. Male’, had gone to a sandbank located to the south of Huvafen Fushi, a resort in K. Atoll on August 29. He was reported missing to the police at around 01:20 pm on August 30.

In a statement on Saturday – which marks exactly two weeks to his disappearance – the police said they have applied for an Interpol yellow notice - a global police alert to help locate missing persons.

The police said that Thasleem departed for the sandbank with a group of 26 other people, including two children, on a speedboat from the southern harbor of Male’ City between 05:00 pm and 05:30 pm on August 29.

The trip was organized to celebrate a birthday and an engagement. The police found that Thasleem was friends with the trip’s organizers, and went there to make the backdrop and do lighting and electrical works.

There was also another group of 12 people there at the sandbank.

He was last seen between 07:45 am and 09:00 am on August 30.

Those who travelled with Thasleem told the police that he had told them he wished to return to Male’. They discovered him missing when they looked for him to tell him to get on a speedboat back to Male’, which departed for the capital between 10:00 am and 11:00 am that day. They then contacted his family to check if he had returned to Male’ on another boat.

They began searching for him when his family said he had not returned.

Searches by the authorities of the sandbank and a 943,998 square-meter water area surrounding it came up empty.

The police said they questioned the people Thasleem travelled with, as well as the other group that was at the sandbank at the time. The police also searched two speedboats, and have begun forensic analysis of Thasleem’s phone and laptop.

“The police also searched places in Male’ that Thasleem Mohamed used to frequent, and have requested an Interpol yellow notice to locate Thasleem Mohamed,” said the police.

The police said they are keeping the family updated regarding any developments to the case.

Male’-born Thasleem had been living in Hulhumale’ Phase I. He is an employee of the Male' City Council.

Interpol yellow notices are a law enforcement tool used for victims of parental abductions, criminal abductions or unexplained disappearances. One was issued for Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla, a Maldivian journalist who disappeared in 2014 and is presumed killed.