Two British Cabinet Ministers had to be airlifted to safety by the Pakistani Army after their convoy came under attack from protesters as they visited the flood-affected areas.
Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell and Pakistani-origin chairman of Conservative Party Baroness Warsi were travelling with a group from the British High Commission when they came across a local demonstration on Wednesday.
According to a report in The Daily Telegraph from Nowshera in Pakistan, hundreds of protesters had blocked the Grand Trunk Road from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, about an hour from Islamabad, after two men were killed by the Army as it tried to run the Taliban out of the area, which has been devastated in this month’s floods.
The five-car convoy was surrounded by a mob throwing stones and brandishing petrol bombs.
The head of security warned: “Turn back quickly. They have got liquids in bottles, rocks. Get out of here.”
No one was injured and the group, which included diplomats and officials, took refuge in the nearby Artillery Headquarters. At least three vehicles were damaged by stones.
The Ministers were stranded for an hour before an Army helicopter airlifted the group to safety in Islamabad, the report said.
