Airport was reclaimed from the Brits after much sacrifice- Umar Zahir

Former Minister Umar Zahir has said that much blood and sweat was shed to reclaim Hulhule’ Airport made of slotted steel sheets from the Brits. He said that he was among the people who participated in the activities to reclaim the airport.

Umar Zahir said this at the public rally of the “Reclaim Maldivian Airport back to Maldivians” movement held at Artificial Beach last night. During the gathering, Ibrahim Shafeeg’s book, “Maldivian Airport will be run by Maldivians” was released.

Umar Zahir said that the people went to the airport in the middle of the night to remove the slotted steel sheets used as the airport runway. He said that the Atoll Office was then located in Hulhule’ so the people had to crawl on the ground and some people wounded themselves. He said that this did not stop them.

“In that condition the people crawled and we removed the slotted steel sheets. We kept big pots on the run so that the aero plane cannot land. We did this to free the airport from the British people. We did this to reclaim the airport back to Maldivians,” he said.