Shoe Hurled at Nawaz Sharif, Ink at Pakistan’s Foreign Minister

While Sharif decided to not speak about the incident, Khawaja Asif said he does not want to punish the man.

File photos of Nawaz Sharif and Khawaja Asif.

(Photo altered by The Quint)

A day after a man hurled ink at Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, a shoe was thrown at Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. According to a PTI report, Sharif, a chief guest at Jamia Naeemia seminary, was heading towards the podium to make a speech, when a student threw the shoe at him, hitting his shoulder and ear.

The student then swiftly reached in front of Sharif, and along with an accomplice, shouted "Labbaik Ya Rasoolullah." The security personnel thrashed the student and his accomplice, and handed them over to the police.

The shoe thrower has been identified as Abdul Ghafoor, a former student of the seminary and a religious extremist, reported PTI. His accomplice is a man called Sajid.

According to the PTI report, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan and other similar religious parties held Sharif and his party (PML-N) responsible for attempting to change a clause related to finality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the Constitution.

Following this incident, Sharif gave a small speech, without even a single mention of the man who threw the shoe, reported PTI.

And What Happened With Khawaja Hasif?

A man also blackened the face of Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif's with ink while he was addressing his party's workers' convention in Sialkot in Pakistan. The man has been identified as Faiz Rasool reported PTI.

The foreign minister, however, is not interested in getting an FIR filed against Rasool. Addressing the gathering, after having washed his face, Asif said: "I do not know this man. It appears my opponents had given him some money to throw ink at me, but I pardon this man and will ask the police to release him."

He also said that the incident does not affect his politics, but only adds sympathy for the man.

According to the PTI report, in a statement, explaining the man's motive the police quoted him and said:

Rasool doesn’t have any connection with any political party. He told police in his statement that he threw ink at the foreign minister because his party had tried to change the finality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the Constitution. This hurt the sentiments of millions of Pakistanis including his.

The man was thrashed by the workers present at the event before being handed over to the police. Rasool will be set free by the police once all the legal requirements are met because the foreign minister does not want an FIR to be registered against him.

(With inputs from PTI.)