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Saudi Arabia has arrested several Pakistani citizens for heckling Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his delegation at Masjid-e-Nabwi mosque in Medina on Thursday, Riyadh’s mission in Islamabad said on Friday.
The Director of Information at Saudi Arabia’s Embassy in Pakistan told Pakistani media that the detainees had been charged with “violating” the mosque's security and a further investigation into the incident has also been launched.
The arrests come after the Pakistani government took strong exception to what it has described as a “shameful act”. In a video of the incident, the Prime Minister Sharif and his delegation members were called “chor” (thieves) by other worshippers as they made their way into Masjid-e-Nabwi, which is described as the second holiest Islamic shrine in the world.
Pakistan’s interior minister Rana Sanaullah said at a press conference in Islamabad on Friday that the incident had “hurt the sentiments” of the Muslim ‘ummah’ (the global Muslim community).
Sanaullah said that Pakistani authorities have called for strict action against those involved in the incident.
“Such elements should be deported as they must not be permitted to stay any more on the holy land,” he remarked. Around two million Pakistani expatriates are currently resident in Saudi Arabia.
The interior minister went on to blame former Prime Minister Imran Khan for the heckling, claiming it may be have been “pre-planned”.
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, who is part of Sharif’s delegation, has claimed that she was also “harassed” by the hecklers during the mosque visit.
“I don’t want to name the person responsible for this incident because I don’t want to use this holy land for political purposes,” she said afterwards, in what appeared to be a reference to Khan.
"However, it will take time for us to fix the ways in which these people have damaged our society and we can only do that through a positive attitude,” she added.
A statement by the Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said Sharif’s visit would focus on “advancing” economic trade and investment ties between the two nations as well as on creating “greater opportunities” for the Pakistani workers in the Sunni Gulf monarchy.