On April 7, 2009, Jarnail Singh, a New Delhi journalist, got into a heated exchange with the Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, launched his size 9 Reebok sneaker at the minister, who was standing five feet away. He missed the target. Fame of the incident quickly followed. The Shiromani Akali Dal, a Sikh political party, offered Singh a $4,000 reward for his "courage and bravery." Three days later, a retired school teacher threw a shoe at popular Congress lawmaker Naveen Jindal, during an election rally in Haryana state.
On April 26, 2009, a 21-year-old student flung his footwear at the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a rally in the city of Ahmedabad. The same night, at a different political gathering in Ahmedabad, a wooden sandal was tossed at prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) L.K. Advani. Advani was also the target of another shoe-throw earlier in the election season.
On February 2, 2009, a protester threw a shoe at Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier, as he delivered a speech on the global economy at Cambridge University, England.
On February 23, 2009, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan survived an attack from the 21st century citizen's weapon of choice - the shoe. A Syrian man of Kurdish origin was detained in Spain after throwing a shoe at Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the southern city of Seville. Erdogan was getting into a car after receiving a cultural cooperation award at the city hall. The 27-year-old man hurled a shoe at the prime minister, shouting "Viva Kurdistan." The shoe hit Erdogan's car instead of the premier, and was picked up by his bodyguards.
On January 19, 2009, Anti-war protesters threw shoes outside the gates of the White House on President Bush's last day in office. About 500 people marched to the White House and threw about 40 pairs of shoes at the gate while tourists looked on and took photos. Supporters say they acted in solidarity with Muntadhar Al-Zeidi, the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad.
Shoe-throwing is a real expression of the frustration of the people. Targeting President Zardari with shoes was the climax of a massive protest campaign now underway inside Pakistan and outside against his unpopular regime that came into power through a dubious deal negotiated by his wife, Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister. The US-blessed deal to share power with the former dictator General Perwez Musharraf was aimed at giving a civilian face to the pro-US policies of the General Musharraf. Unfortunately, Benazir was assassinated in December 2007 but her Pakistan Peoples Party emerged as the leading party in the February 2008 elections due to a sympathy vote.
President Zardari's US-client government is implementing almost all the unpopular policies adopted by General Musharraf, particularly the so-called "war on terror." Since 2004, at the behest of Washington, Pakistan army is busy in killing its own people in northern areas along the border with Afghanistan. Thousands of innocent people dubbed as "terrorists" have been killed by the brave army of Pakistan that has a record of launching a massive killing operation against its own people in East Pakistan that later seceded to become Bangladesh. Not surprisingly, the Zardari regime gave a three years extension to the Chief Of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, last month for his "efficient' job to carry on the most unpopular US-paid military operations against his own people.
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