MALE, Maldives — For the Boy Scout who dreams of becoming a police officer, grabbing the knife of a would-be assassin lunging for the president of the Maldives was a crash course in heroics.
“The Scouts saying is ‘Be prepared,’ ” Mohammed Jaisham Ibrahim, 15, said Thursday. “I was prepared.”
The attack turned him into a big deal in this small country of nearly 1,200 islands that stretch south from India.
“He had a long beard; he shouted ‘God is great’ when he took out his knife. He kept shouting it,” Ibrahim said from the hospital in Male where he is recovering from wounds to his left hand after he grabbed the knife’s blade.
He said he was never scared.
“This is what I wanted to do when I become a policeman. I now know that I can do it if I have to act again. I won’t be afraid.”
