By J.J. Robinson
MALE, Maldives (Reuters) – Opposition-led protests in the Maldives boiled over on Tuesday with some police officers defying orders to break them up and instead joining in an assault on the military headquarters in the capital Male.
A Reuters witness on Tuesday saw soldiers launch tear gas grenades at a crowd of about 500 people, including several dozen police officers in uniform, who were trying to smash their way into the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) headquarters.
The violence on the archipelago best-known as a luxury beach getaway destination is the worst out of more than three weeks of protests.
They started after President Mohamed Nasheed ordered the military to arrest the top criminal court judge, whom he accuses of being in the pocket of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
That set off a constitutional crisis that has Nasheed, widely credited with ushering in full democracy to the Indian Ocean archipelago with his election victory in 2008, in the unaccustomed position of defending himself of acting like a dictator. Gayoom’s 30-year rule was widely seen as autocratic.
Gayoom’s opposition Progressive Party of the Maldives accused the military
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