Pakistan’s Imran Khan recovering in hospital after assassination attempt

LAHORE – Pakistani former prime minister Imran Khan was recovering in hospital on Friday after

an assassination attempt that left him with a gunshot wound to the leg.

The attack on his convoy, apparently by a lone gunman, killed one man and wounded at least 10 others.

The incident has signifcantly raised the stakes in the political crisis gripping the country since Mr Khan’s ousting in April.

Mr Khan “was stable and he was doing fine” at Shaukat Khanum hospital in the eastern city of Lahore, his doctor Faisal Sultan told AFP Friday morning.

Mr Khan blames Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and others in his administration for the attack, according to Asad Umar, a senior leader of Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Mr Khan spoke to two senior party members after the shooting and asked them to convey his statement, Mr Umar said.

Mr Khan has called for Mr Sharif’s resignation or to face nationwide protests, Mr Umar said, adding that a police complaint will be filed against the PM and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah.

Mr Sharif’s government has condemned the incident and called for an investigation. 

Mr Sanaullah also rejected the allegation and the PTI’s demand for Mr Sharif to resign.

The chief minister of Punjab Province, Parvez Elahi, announced on Twitter the formation of a joint investigation team to look into the shooting.

Mr Khan was

leading a march towards the capital Islamabad to demand early elections

when the incident occurred.

He escaped with at least one bullet wound to his right leg when a gunmen sprayed pistol fire at his modified container truck as it slowly drove through a thick crowd in Wazirabad, around 170km east of Islamabad.

Some PTI officials have said there were two shooters at the scene.

“Everyone who was standing in the very front row got hit,” former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, who was standing behind Mr Khan, told AFP.

Senior aide Raoof Hasan told AFP it was “an attempt to kill him, to assassinate him”.

Mr Chaudhry said PTI officials would meet later on Friday to discuss the immediate fate of Khan’s campaign march, but vowed it would continue.

“The real freedom long march will continue and the movement for people’s rights will remain until an announcement on the general elections,” he tweeted.

Several supporters took to the streets in Karachi and Islamabad and other cities to protest the shooting.

Local TV stations broadcast the alleged confession made by one of the attackers to the police. At least one by-stander was killed in the gunfire, according to police.

“I did it because (Khan) was misleading the public,” says a dishevelled man in the video, shown with his hands tied behind his back in what appears to be a police station.

He adds that he was angry with the procession for making a racket during the call to prayer that summons Muslims to the mosque five times a day.

Pakistan has been grappling with Muslim militancy for decades, and politicians are frequently targeted by assassination attempts.

The attack on Mr Khan had echoes of the 2007 assassination of another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, who died when a huge bomb detonated near her vehicle as she greeted supporters in the city of Rawalpindi while standing up through the roof hatch.

Mr Khan was

booted from office in April by a no-confidence vote

after defections by some of his coalition partners.

However, he retains huge support in the South Asian country.

Mr Khan was voted into power in 2018 on an anti-corruption platform by an electorate tired of dynastic politics.

But his mishandling of the economy – and falling out with a military accused of helping his rise – sealed his fate.

Since then, he has railed against the establishment and Mr Sharif’s government, which he says was imposed on Pakistan by a “conspiracy” involving the United States.

Mr Khan has repeatedly told supporters he was prepared to die for the country, and aides have long warned of unspecified threats made on his life.

The attack drew international condemnation including from the United States, which had uneasy relations with Mr Khan when he was in power.

“Violence has no place in politics, and we call on all parties to refrain from violence, harassment and intimidation,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. AFP, BLOOMBERG