Foreign minister Dhunya Maumoon told reporters in Sri Lankan capital Colombo that Maldivian investigators, with help from experts from Sri Lanka, United States, and Saudi Arabia, have established that the explosion aboard the presidential speedboat late last month that was targeted to assassinate or incapacitate the president. Investigators also found evidence of efforts made by suspected elements within the Maldives security services to tamper with or destroy evidence related to the on-going investigation, she added. “In this regard several arrests have been made by the Maldives police for further interrogation including the Vice President Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Ghafoor,” she said, during a press conference held after back-to-back meetings with her colleagues in the diplomatic community in Colombo. According to Dhunya, the vice president was arrested because an independent assessment and an impartial investigation could not be carried out unless he was taken into custody. She echoed the president’s earlier remarks that the vice president was apprehended based not just on intelligence reports, but based on credible information obtained during a thorough investigation. Citing the president’s address to the nation on Sunday, the minister said the vice president had not been cooperating with the investigating team. Many questions remained to be answered by him despite repeated requests from the relevant investigative authorities, she added. “… The government remains committed to ensure that the investigation is conducted swiftly and transparently,” Dhunya, who arrived in Sri Lanka Tuesday to brief her fellow diplomats and foreign media about the recent political developments in the Maldives, said. Vice President Adheeb was arrested on Saturday upon return from an official visit to China and taken to the police detention centre in the island of Dhoonidhoo in Kaafu Atoll. He is being accused of high treason, a charge he denies. President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom and First Lady Fathimath Ibrahim were travelling to Male from the airport on September 28 when the explosion took place. They had returned home that morning after concluding their visit to Saudi Arabia to perform the annual hajj pilgrimage. The president was unhurt, but the first lady suffered a spinal fracture and still remains in hospital.