Lawyer lobs shoe at Musharraf outside Pak high court

An angry lawyer on Friday lobbed a shoe at former Pakistani military dictator Pervez Musharraf when he appeared at a court here, in a bid to satisfy his mother who hated the ex-president for the 2007 Lal Masjid operation.

The man, identified as advocate Tajammul Lodhi, hurled the shoe towards Musharraf while he was leaving the Sindh high court after obtaining a 15-day extension of his pre-arrest bail in a series of cases, including the 2007 assassination of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

The shoe fell a few feet in front of 69-year-old Musharraf, who was surrounded by security personnel and TV cameramen.

Footage on TV showed the shoe flying through the air and landing among a group of people in front of Musharraf. Pakistan Rangers personnel detained Lodhi on the charge of throwing the shoe at Musharraf, Geo TV reported. Lodhi was taken to undisclosed location by security personnel.

Lodhi later told TV channels that he had thrown the shoe as he hated Musharraf for trying to destroy democracy in the country. "My mother has hated him since the Lal Masjid operation and today I am happy I was able to give her some satisfaction," Lodhi said.

Musharraf, who recently returned to Pakistan after nearly four years of self-exile, went to the court to seek extension of his pre-arrest bail. A bench extended the bail by 15 days.

This was not the first time that a shoe was hurled at Musharraf. In 2011, a man tried to hurl his shoe at him when he was addressing a gathering in Britain. Angry scenes were witnessed in the court complex as a group of lawyers shouted slogans against Musharraf.  

There were heated exchanges between lawyers and Musharraf supporters. Musharraf's security guards rushed him out of the court complex. Sindh high court Chief Justice Musheer Alam has ordered a judicial inquiry into the chaotic scenes over the shoe throwing incident within the court premises.