Shoe hurled at Nawaz Sharif in Lahore; Opposition condemns incident, but blames 'overconfidence' of former prime minister

Former Pakistani prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif was delivering a speech at Jamia Naeemia in Lahore when a man in the audience hurled a shoe at him, according to several media reports.

Shoe hurled at former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by a student during an event in Lahore: Pakistan Media (file pic) pic.twitter.com/4zmHuiyh4e

— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2018

Here’s the video showing Sharif being attacked in Lahore.

#WATCH - Shoe thrown at former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif at Jamia Naeemia in Lahore. pic.twitter.com/mGtiqVNzpz

— News18 (@CNNnews18) March 11, 2018

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As Sharif was heading towards rostrum for a speech, a student hurled a shoe at him that hit his shoulder and ear. The student also managed to reach in front of Sharif and chanted “Labbaik Ya Rasoolullah” slogan. The security personnel caught the student and his other accomplice who also chanted “Labbaik Ya Rasoolullah” slogans and gave them a sound thrashing. According to a report in  Dawn, Sharif arrived at Jamia Naeemia to address at a ceremony marking the death anniversary of Mufti Mohammad Hussain Naeemi. After the attack, the PML-N leader went ahead with his address but shortened his speech before thanking the organisers and praying for the deceased cleric. [caption id=“attachment_4280599” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Nawaz Sharif. AP[/caption] Police said the attacker, identified as Talha Munawwar, is a former student of the seminary and was shifted to Services Hospital after being beaten up by the seminary staff and students, GeoTV reported. The religious parties especially Tehreek-e-Labbaik  Pakistan had held Sharif and his party (PML-N) responsible for making an attempt to change a clause related to finality of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in the Constitution. Opposition leader MNA Sheikh Rashid condemned the incident, calling it a collapse of intelligence brought about by the ‘overconfidence’ of the former prime minister, TV channel Dawn News reported. On Saturday, a person threw ink at Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif while he was addressing a PML-N convention at Sialkot and a few days ago, another PML-N leader, Ahsan Iqbal, had a shoe thrown at him, Dawn News reported.  In Saturday’s incident, Faiz Rasool, who threw ink at the foreign minister, told the police that he vented his anger because the PML-N had tried to change the finality of the Prophet in the Constitution. “This hurt the sentiments of millions of Pakistanis including myself,” he said. With inputs from PTI