Eggs, ink hurled at Shahbaz Gill within LHC premises

PM's adviser was reportedly attacked by a PML-N supporter; police arrest man identified as Abbas

LAHORE:

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supporters were reported to have hurled eggs and ink at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill within the Lahore High Court (LHC) premises on Monday.

Gill, special assistant to prime minister on political communication, had arrived at the high court to attend the proceedings of a case seeking quashment of an FIR earlier registered against a company.

However, as soon as the PTI leader entered the court's premises, a woman Zarka bibi, reportedly a PML-N supporter, threw ink and eggs at him.

Read PTI supporters accused of manhandling PML-N leaders in Islamabad

The PTI leader was also later hurled a shoe at on his way out of the LHC. All the incidents occurred despite the SAPM being surrounded by the police.

A video showed a group of women, said to be of the PML-N, standing outside the court's premises near the PTI leader's vehicle holding shoes in their hands.

The security officers later managed to arrest some workers from the scene, including a man identified as Abbas.

In the footage of the incident, a man could be seen bleeding from the forehead, with police officials making efforts to safeguard him from the crowd beating him up.

Read more PTI struggles to operate in former PML-N den

Responding to media personnel's inquiries about what had happened to him after successfully making it inside, the SAPM said, "I was pelted with eggs and black ink; it was the color of PML-N's black actions!" "Tthey have now resorted to hooliganism," Gill stated.

On March 6, PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal was also hurled a shoe at during a brawl outside the parliament where Prime Minister Imran Khan was to receive a vote of confidence from the lawmakers.

The PML-N leaders had gathered to address a presser when the scene turned chaotic.

Tensions between the government and the opposition exasperated by relentless verbal duels boiled over on the day as supporters of the ruling PTI and PML-N got physical in the capital’s red zone and the melee was caught on tape.

The visuals of fist-fight, pushing and shoving caught social media by storm triggering highly abusive trends on the popular microblogging site Twitter. The incident was condemned as manifestation of growing intolerance in politics, with the government and the opposition giving conflicting accounts.