MALE (Maldives), Jan 10: The 15-year-old Boy Scout who saved the president of this Indian Ocean archipelago from being stabbed said on Thursday that the assailant appeared to be an Islamic extremist, shouting ‘’God is Great’’ before attacking.

Mohammed Jaisham Ibrahim’s account of the attack matches stories filtering out of the remote island where the incident took place and is likely to heighten concerns about rising militancy in the Maldives, a country best known for its high-end resorts and stunning coral reefs.

Officials have so far downplayed the Islamic extremism angle, saying Tuesday’s attack on President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom may have been politically motivated but offering no other details.

Police arrested the alleged assailant at the scene of the attack and picked up another four suspected accomplices on Wednesday.

Ibrahim said he had no doubt that the alleged attacker was a militant or inspired by an extremist vision of the world, a view seconded by people who know the man.

’’He had a long beard; he shouted ‘God is Great’ when he took out his knife. He kept shouting it,’’ Ibrahim told The Associated Press in an interview from the hospital in Male where he is recovering from wounds to his left hand sustained in the attack.Wearing his khaki Maldives scout uniform with a blue kerchief, Ibrahim was among the scores of people who turned out to greet Gayoom when he arrived on Tuesday on Hoarafushi, one of the 1,190 coral islands in the Indian Ocean that make up the Maldives.

He said the attacker was behind him, jostling to get closer to Gayoom.

’’He pushed me, and I pushed him back,’’ said Ibrahim, his left hand wrapped in bandages and lanky frame sprawled out on a bed in a small hospital room crowded with family and well-wishers.—AP