Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was wounded in the legs at a rally on Thursday after at least one unidentified man opened fire on his convoy in what aides have called a targeted attack.
The Punjab police said one person was killed and seven were wounded in the attack. Khan, 70, suffered bullet wounds in both legs, officials said.
Khan was in Wazirabad, in eastern Pakistan, leading a protest march to the capital, Islamabad, to demand that the government hold early elections when his convoy came under attack. The suspected attacker is in custody.
Fawad Chaudhry, a senior member of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, called the incident “100 per cent an assassination attempt”.
Khan underwent surgery in Lahore and is out of danger, a party leader said.
India said it was keeping a “close” eye on the developments.
A video of the attack showed Khan standing in a container mounted on top of a truck as it moved slowly through a crowd. As gunshots rang out, Khan and others on the truck appeared to duck down.
“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 was grabbed by an activist of Khan’s party.”
Khan later alleged that current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, interior minister Sanaullah and Major General Faisal (Naseer) plotted the failed “assassination attempt” on him, a close aide said in a video statement. Interior minister Sanaullah rejected Khan’s allegations.
In purported footage of the shooting unverified by Reuters, a man with a handgun is grabbed from behind by one of the people at the gathering. He then tries to flee.
At least one senior aide to Khan, senator Faisal Javed Khan, was also wounded in the attack, according to local news media. Photographs circulating on social media showed the aide, who often helps rally crowds at the former Prime Minister’s protests, dressed in white and splattered with blood. He did not appear to be seriously injured.
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 a news conference to deny the claims.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif immediately condemned the attack and requested a report on it from the country’s interior minister.
“We pray for the speedy recovery of Imran and other injured,” he said in a statement. “Violence should have no place in politics.”
The attack comes at a moment of intense political acrimony in Pakistan. Khan was removed from office in April in a vote of no confidence after falling out with the country’s top military leaders, who are widely considered the invisible hand guiding Pakistani politics.
In the months since, Khan has made a stunning comeback. The former cricket star turned politician has drawn thousands to his rallies across Pakistan and tapped into deep-seated disillusionment among Pakistanis over the country’s political upheaval and economic crisis.
But as his popularity has grown, so, too, has a crackdown on Khan. In recent weeks, he has faced mounting cases against him in court. Last month, Pakistan’s election commission disqualified him from completing his current term in Parliament.
The cases against him are seen by his supporters and many political analysts as part of a coordinated campaign by the Pakistani authorities to sideline him from politics — an accusation that the Pakistani military and political leaders have repeatedly denied. But even so, the crackdown has only buoyed his popularity, analysts say, and Khan has demonstrated a unique ability to elude Pakistan’s typical playbook for ousting leaders.
In a show of political strength, Khan and his supporters had last week set off on a highly anticipated days-long march to Islamabad from Lahore in an effort to add pressure to his calls for the government to hold a general election sooner than August, when they are scheduled to happen.
(New York Times News Service, Reuters and PTI)