• Marriyum was harassed at a cafe in London’s Edgeware area.
• The crowd kept yelling at the information minister.
• Netizens, including PML-N’s Miftah Ismail, condemn incident.

LONDON: Minister of Information Marriyum Aurangzeb on Sunday was harassed by a group of PML-N’s political opponents while she was in a coffee shop in London, United Kingdom.

The information minister was in a café near the Marble Arch station to buy coffee where she was heckled by a group of PTI supporters, who surrounded the minister and began yelling at her. The crowd also continued to videotape Aurangzeb.

The women supporters of PTI continued to target her with inappropriate allegations, while also accusing her of being a thief.

Shouting in the coffee shop, a woman claimed: “Marriyum Aurangzeb is spending Pakistan’s looted money in London.”

The PTI protestors swarmed around Marriyum and did not let her be during what appeared to be her time off from her official duties as a minister.

After the video of the incident went viral on social media, netizens including Mariyum’s PML-N colleague Miftah Ismail and Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari — the daughter of PPP co-chairperson Asif Zardari — came to the minister’s defence and criticised the PTI for instigating hatred and propagating misbehaviour among its supporters who harass people that don’t agree with their party’s ideology.

Mariyum herself also called out the attack and harassment she faced in the coffee shop, terming it a “toxic impact” of Imran Khan’s “politics of hate and divisiveness”.

“I stayed & answered each & every question they had. Sadly, they are victims of IK’s propaganda. We will continue our work to counter IK’s toxic politics & bring people together,” she tweeted.

Taking to Twitter, Miftah wrote: “I salute my sister @Marriyum_A for her grace and composure in the face of such harassment and baseless lies from that uncouth woman (who can be heard but thankfully cannot be seen).”

“Ugly trolls silent on Imran Khan caught stealing from charity, calling OBL a Shaheed, calling victims of terrorism blackmailers & justifying rape on clothing,” Bakhtawar tweeted, supporting Mariyum for her resilience against the “trolls”.

One Twitter user wrote, “Massive respect.”

This is not the first time that the information minister has been harassed by the PTI chairman’s party supporters. Earlier this year, Aurangzeb was surrounded by a mob that hurled abuses and insulted her and Minister for Narcotics Control Shahzain Bugti at the Masjid-e-Nabawi (PBUH) in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. At least five Pakistani nationals were later arrested for the said incident.