A shoe was hurled at Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan that missed its target and instead landed on PTI leader Aleem Khan’s chest, during a public rally in Gujarat on Tuesday.
This was the second such attempt to attack the PTI chief as a man was beaten up and handed over to police for allegedly trying to throw a shoe at the PTI chief as he was getting into his vehicle to leave the venue for a political rally he addressed in Faisalabad just two days ago.
This time, the party chairman was addressing the rally in Gujrat when a shoe was hurled at him. However, it missed the PTI chief by a fair margin and hit Aleem Khan, who was also standing on the stage.
PTI Central Information Secretary Fawad Chaudhry strongly condemned the incident and alleged that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was “responsible for all these incidents as the ruling party is instigating its workers to commit such crimes”.
He underlined that all political parties should develop consensus “to stop this nonsense as it is not acceptable at all”.
He said all opposition parties, including PTI, stood by the PML-N when a person threw ink at Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif during a workers’ convention in Sialkot a couple of days ago. Despite his political differences, the PTI chairman also condemned the shoe attack on former premier Nawaz Sharif at Lahore’s Jamia Naeemia, he added. Chaudhry said there was no justification for such incidents. “It is heartening that no PTI worker is involved in such acts. The ruling party should also control its workers and supporters,” he maintained.
This was the fourth such event in less than 15 days as ex-PM Nawaz Sharif on Sunday became the latest in a long line of world leaders attacked with a shoe.
Sharif was invited to address a ceremony to mark the death anniversary of slain religious scholar Sarfaraz Naeemi at Jamia Naeemia in Lahore. Just as Sharif got to the podium, a man hurled a shoe towards him, which landed reasonably far away from Sharif. Moments later, another man tossed his shoe towards Sharif. The shoe hit him in the chest before bouncing into his neck and cheek. Immediately afterwards, the man stepped up on the stage chanting a religious slogan.
Sharif’s private guards and event organisers overpowered the man, pinned him to the floor, and thrashed him
n Saturday, ink was thrown on the face of Defence Minister Khawaja Asif during a workers convention in his hometown of Sialkot. On February 24, a shoe was hurled at Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal during an address at a workers convention in Narowal, his hometown. In both of the incidents, the ministers pardoned their attackers.
