Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was shot in the shin on Thursday when his anti-government protest convoy came under attack in the east of the country in what his aides said was a clear assassination attempt.
Khan, 70, ousted as prime minister in April, was six days into a miles-long protest procession, standing and waving to thousands of cheering supporters from the roof of a container truck when the shots rang out.
Several in his convoy were wounded in the attack in Wazirabad, nearly 200 km (120 miles) from Islamabad, and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said a suspect had been arrested.
“It was a clear assassination attempt. Khan was hit but he’s stable. There was a lot of bleeding,” Fawad Chaudhry, a spokesperson for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told Reuters.
“If the shooter had not been stopped by people there, the entire PTI leadership would have been wiped out.”
In a statement, the military called the shooting “highly condemnable”. Khan had accused the military of backing the plan to oust him from power. Last week, the military held an unprecedented press conference to deny the claims.
“I heard a burst of bullet shots after which I saw Imran Khan and his aides fall down on the truck,” witness Qazzafi Butt told Reuters.
“Later, a gunman shot a single shot but was grabbed by an activist of Khan’s party.”
In purported footage of the shooting, being run by multiple channels, a man with a handgun is grabbed from behind by one of the people at the gathering. He then tries to flee.
TV channels showed a suspected shooter, who looked to be in his twenties or thirties. He said he wanted to kill Khan and had acted alone.
“He (Khan) was misleading the people, and I couldn’t bear it,” the suspect said in the video. The information minister confirmed the footage was recorded by police.
No one had yet been charged with the attack.
Khan had been whipping up large crowds on his way to the capital Islamabad in a campaign to topple the government of rival Shehbaz Sharif.
One member of Khan’s party said there were reports one person had been killed in the attack.
Khan aide Chaudhry wrote on Twitter: “It was a well-planned assassination attempt on Imran Khan, the assassin planned to kill Imran Khan and leadership of PTI, it was not 9 MM it was burst from automatic weapon, no two opinions about that it was narrow escape.”
PROTESTERS ON STREETS
Pakistan has a long history of political violence. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 in a gun and bomb attack after holding an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi, next to Islamabad.
Her father and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged in the same city in 1979 after being deposed by a military coup.
Local media showed footage of Khan waving to the crowd after being evacuated from his vehicle amid pople running and shouting after the shooting.
He was taken to hospital in Lahore as protesters poured out on to streets in some parts of the country and PTI leaders demanded justice.
PTI colleague Faisal Javed, who was also wounded and had blood stains on his clothes, told Geo TV from the hospital: “Several of our colleagues are wounded. We heard that one of them is dead.”
Prime Minister Sharif condemned the shooting and ordered an immediate investigation.
Since being ousted through a parliamentary vote, Khan has held rallies across Pakistan, stirring opposition against a government that is struggling to bring the economy out of the crisis that Khan’s administration left it in.
Khan had planned to lead the motorised caravan slowly northwards up the Grand Trunk Road to Islamabad, drawing more support along the way before entering the capital.
“I want that all of you participate. This is not for politics or personal gain, or to topple the government… this is to bring genuine freedom to the country,” Khan said in a video message on the eve of the march.
