MDP supporters gathered at the Artificial Beach area for the mass protest on Friday.

IANS
Male
The Maldivian government yesterday said that a protest staged by the opposition overnight was largely peaceful.
The protest organised by the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) was held at the Artificial Beach of Male, Xinhua news agency
reported.
The protesters called for the release of former president Mohamed Nasheed and other
detainees, among other demands.
“The MDP had agreed with the Maldives Police Service and the Elections Commission, prior to the protest, to convene the protests in the most peaceful and lawful manner,” the home affairs ministry said.
On Wednesday, the ministry had also informed the MDP that the protest should be contained within the Artificial Beach area.
However, the MDP yesterday vowed to regroup for a second night of demonstrations hours after police broke up a planned 72-hour protest.
MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Gaffoor said the party is within its legal rights to continue the protests because police have unilaterally withdrawn from agreed terms.
The MDP is demanding the release from jail of former president Mohamed Nasheed, ex-defence minister Mohamed Nazim and opposition leader Sheik Imran Abdulla, as well as the withdrawal of court action against 1,700 political activists.
It says the actions against the leaders and activists are the result of a political vendetta by the current president.
Gaffoor said that during an earlier discussion with the party, the police had agreed to allow a three-day protest as long as sound systems were not used after midnight. However, they withdrew their permission after the government interfered, he said.
Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison for ordering the arrest of a top judge when he was president in 2012. Nazim is serving a 10-year sentence for illegal possession of a pistol, and Abdulla has been detained for allegedly inciting violence at an anti-government protest in May.
The Maldives, known mainly for its pristine beaches and luxury island resorts, became a multiparty democracy in 2008, but recently democratic gains have been shrinking fast.
Nasheed, the Indian Ocean archipelago’s first democratically elected president, resigned four years into his five-year term amid protests against his role in the arrest of the judge. Abdulla Yameen, a half-brother of the Maldives’ former 30-year autocrat, defeated Nasheed in a
disputed election in 2013.
The judiciary, police and the bureaucracy are deemed highly politicised and are accused of being used by Yameen to crack down on the opposition.