Pakistan's ex-leader escapes shoe toss
Source: Agencies |
March 30, 2013, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN angry lawyer threw a shoe at former President Pervez Musharraf as he headed to court in southern Pakistan yesterday to face legal charges following his return to the country after four years in self-imposed exile, police said.
Meanwhile, a Taliban suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked the convoy of a paramilitary police commander in northwestern Pakistan, killing 11 people, including a four month-old infant, police said.
Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999 but was forced to step down nearly a decade later, is disliked by many lawyers in Pakistan because of his decision to suspend the chief justice of the Supreme Court while he was in office.
The lawyer tossed his shoe at Musharraf as he was walking down a hallway in the court building in the city of Karachi surrounded by a mob of security, supporters and journalists, said police official Nasir Aftab.
The shoe did not hit Musharraf, and the lawyer was not detained because no charges were filed against him, said Aftab. Throwing a shoe at someone is an especially potent insult in Muslim countries because the sole is considered unclean.
Local TV channels showed video of the incident, but it was impossible to identify the thrower because he was hidden behind the corridor.
After the incident, judges granted Musharraf an extension of bail in three cases against him, meaning he cannot be immediately arrested. Two of the cases involve the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the killing of Akbar Bugti, a Baluch nationalist leader who died in 2006 in a standoff with the Pakistani military.
Meanwhile, a Taliban suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked the convoy of a paramilitary police commander in northwestern Pakistan, killing 11 people, including a four month-old infant, police said.
Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999 but was forced to step down nearly a decade later, is disliked by many lawyers in Pakistan because of his decision to suspend the chief justice of the Supreme Court while he was in office.
The lawyer tossed his shoe at Musharraf as he was walking down a hallway in the court building in the city of Karachi surrounded by a mob of security, supporters and journalists, said police official Nasir Aftab.
The shoe did not hit Musharraf, and the lawyer was not detained because no charges were filed against him, said Aftab. Throwing a shoe at someone is an especially potent insult in Muslim countries because the sole is considered unclean.
Local TV channels showed video of the incident, but it was impossible to identify the thrower because he was hidden behind the corridor.
After the incident, judges granted Musharraf an extension of bail in three cases against him, meaning he cannot be immediately arrested. Two of the cases involve the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the killing of Akbar Bugti, a Baluch nationalist leader who died in 2006 in a standoff with the Pakistani military.
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