The government has faced criticism over the decision to pay allowances to the families of the soldiers who were martyred in the November 3, 1988 attack on Maldives.

The rules for the allowance was published in the government gazette yesterday. It says that each surviving family member (mother, father, children and widow) of the martyred soldier will receive MVR 9,000 per month for the rest of their lives.

People began expressing frustration and slammed the government when the news was reported by the media.

The majority of the concern was connected to the country's current financial situation. People highlighted that the state will face an additional burden with such decisions while the debt and expenditure continued to soar.

"Is the country moving towards bankruptcy too slow?" one person wrote in a sarcastic post.

"They say we don't have money But they act like they don't know what to do with money," another person said.

"The country is in debt. Isn't this a big waste? President [Dr. Mohamed] Muizzu please don't do this. The elderly and the disabled should keep getting their benefits," an anonymous account wrote on X.

Another person wrote that the allowance was introduced to avoid a possible coup by the army and warned that the people of Bangladesh revolted against the government in 2024 due to such "unfair" benefits.

"The children of the soldiers who were martyred that day are now 40 years old or older. Their widows have remarried. Their parents receive old age benefits," another person wrote.

This year marks the 37th anniversary of the 1988 attack. Nineteen people were martyred when a group of mercenaries backed by some Maldivians launched a surprise attack to overthrow the government of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

Eight of the 19 martyrs were soldiers. The martyred soldiers had a total of 18 children who were alive at the time.

Their families had been receiving special allowances from the state, but President Muizzu said on November 3 last year that the allowance had stopped.

In addition to the allowances, Muizzu announced a housing program for the families of martyrs.