London, July 13 : Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's grandsons have been arrested for allegedly punching a demonstrator during a scuffle outside their house here, the Metropolitan Police said.

According to Dawn online, initial reports said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) opponents had gathered outside the Avenfield residence where a protester was believed to have hurled abuses at Sharif's grandsons Junaid Safdar and Zakaria Hussain, prompting them to lose their cool.

Maryam Nawaz's son Junaid Safdar claimed that the protesters who have been camping outside the Avenfield House, a luxury apartment scheme, since a few days had spit on and tried to attack him and threw an umbrella as well.

Later, in a tweet, Maryam Nawaz said the "Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf workers stationed outside London flat shouted (expletive) every time they saw Junaid".

"Anyone would have reacted," she said.

In a video obtained by Geo News, one protester can be seen trying to attack the two young Sharifs, with Junaid Safdar bowing out and saving himself in time. A verbal fight ensues again but, in the meantime, the British police arrive.

Authorities said they detained the junior Safdar for punching a young man (physical assault) and confirmed that Hussain Nawaz's son Zakariya had also been arrested. The injured man belonged to Pakistan, police said.

In an earlier incident, a trolley was also hurled at the door to the Sharifs' apartment.

Separately, Sharif and his daughter flew off to Pakistan, a week after an accountability court sentenced them to 10 and seven years in jail in the Avenfield properties corruption case.

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Patna: The opposition INDIA bloc has named Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav as the head of its coordination committee for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.

The decision was made during a meeting of the six alliance partners – Congress, RJD, Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (CPI(ML)), and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) – held in Patna on Thursday, April 17.

While the bloc stopped short of formally declaring Yadav as its chief ministerial candidate, it confirmed that he will lead the key decision-making committee for the election campaign. The committee will be responsible for drafting a common minimum programme, finalizing the manifesto, managing seat-sharing talks, and coordinating campaign strategies.

Congress’s Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru, speaking at a joint press conference after the meeting, said, “The coordination committee will be the supreme body for the INDIA alliance, overseeing every aspect of the election. Tejashwi Yadav will be its chairman, and members from all alliance partners will be included.”

The meeting followed Yadav’s recent discussions in Delhi with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

Addressing the media after the Patna meeting, Yadav said, “There is deep resentment among the people of Bihar due to unemployment, poverty, and increasing migration. Even the NITI Aayog’s report confirms Bihar as the poorest state despite 20 years of rule under the NDA.”

He further criticized both Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the central government, stating, “The real double engine in Bihar is crime and corruption.”

In the 2020 Assembly elections, the RJD emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats, while Congress won 19 of the 70 it contested. The CPI(ML) secured 12 of 19 seats, and the VIP, despite exiting the alliance before the elections, won four seats.

The INDIA bloc is now preparing to mount a consolidated challenge to the ruling NDA in the upcoming state polls.