Thakurufaanu Liberates the Nation.
Muhammad Thakurufaanu, a fisherman's son from the northern island of Utheemu, lands with his brothers in a small boat and strikes at night. The Portuguese captain is killed in his sleep, and the occupation ends. The night of liberation is still celebrated as the Maldives' National Day.
The Utheemu brothers' guerrilla war ran for eight years (1570–1573). Operating from the Kalhuohfummi — a purpose-built vessel designed for speed and manoeuvrability in the shallow channels between reefs — they launched nocturnal raids on Portuguese garrisons and supply ships, vanishing before dawn to a different island every night.
The final blow came on the eve of a decree by Andiri Andirin threatening to execute every Maldivian who refused to convert to Catholicism. Muhammad Thakurufaanu and his men slipped into Malé under cover of darkness, stormed the garrison, and killed the captain with a musket shot as he slept. By sunrise the capital was back in Maldivian hands.
Thakurufaanu ruled justly for twelve years and founded the Utheemu dynasty. The night of liberation is still the Maldives' National Day — a cornerstone of a national ethos of self-reliance, cultural preservation, and deep scepticism of foreign hegemony that runs straight through the next four centuries.
A time when intolerable enormities were committed by the invading infidels, when the sea grew red with Maldivian blood, and the people were sunk in despair.