LAHORE: Three suspects were booked on Monday and sent into judicial custody over the ‘shoe attack’ on former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. During an event at Jamia Naeemia seminary on Sunday, a former seminary student hurled a shoe at Nawaz, which hit him on the chest and shoulder. Police had detained three people over the incident after the seminary’s administration handed them over to the authorities. On Monday, police presented the three suspects – Abdul Ghafoor, Mohammad Sajid Hussain and Munawwar Sabir – in court, where they obtained their 14-day judicial remand. The FIR registered against them at Qila Gujar Singh Police Station includes charges of assault, criminal intimidation and breaching public order. Following the incident, in which Nawaz remained unhurt, the former premier continued with his address to the seminary students and later left the venue. Police later identified Munawwar, a former student of the seminary, as the attacker. Allama Raghib Naeemi, the head of the seminary, had condemned the incident. In a press conference the same day, he said that though democracy espouses differences of opinion, expressing differences this way was not appropriate. “Our relations with the Sharif family cannot be curtailed through these acts,” he said, and termed the incident a part of a conspiracy. A communiqué was also issued following the meeting, attended by over 20 clerics, condemning the incident in strongest possible words. It said that protecting Khatm-e-Nabuwwat was the shared responsibility of all Muslims and demanded to make public the Raja Zafarul Haq report on the issue. Naeemi had demanded a transparent probe into the incident to reveal ‘behind the scene elements’ responsible for it. “We are more hurt than Nawaz Sharif and his family as we were the hosts and Nawaz Sharif was our honourable guest,” he had said. Allama Naeemi also called for strict punishment against the perpetrators of the attack. Published in Daily Times, March 13th 2018.