Wais Waheed Appointed Director General of National Counter Terrorism Center

Retired Brigadier General Zakariyya Mansoor has been removed from the position of Director General of the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), with retired Major General Wais Waheed now taking over the role.

Zakariyya, whose service with the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) spanned nearly 37 years, received an honourable discharge on December 9, 2021. Having taken the helm of NCTC on April 21, 2016, his tenure came to an end on November 17 with the transition to the new Maldivian administration.

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Wais, who joined the MNDF on June 19, 1989, concluded his 34 years of service with an honourable discharge on December 12. At the time of his retirement, he held the position of Commanding Officer of MNDF’s Marine Corps and College of Defense and Security Studies.

The NCTC, operating independently under the direct supervision of the Defense Ministry, was established by presidential decree on February 25, 2016. This move followed the enactment of the Counter-Terrorism Act in 2015. Originally instituted in 2012 as the Office for Counter Terrorism (OCT) and later restructured in 2014 as the Department of Counter Terrorism (DCT), NCTC plays a pivotal role in the nation’s security landscape.