Senior Pakistan minister shot by Islamist at political rally

AHSAN IQBAL, Pakistan’s interior minister, narrowly escaped death yesterday after he was shot by a radical Islamist at a political rally in his hometown Narowal, a city in the province of Punjab.

Mr Iqbal was shot in the shoulder as he was returning to his vehicle from delivering a pre-election campaign speech, Imran Kishwar, the district police officer told The Daily Telegraph.

The interior minister, a totemic figure in Pakistani politics and stalwart of the ruling Pakistan Muslim Leaguenawaz (PML-N) was airlifted from Narowal to the provincial capital of Lahore where he was last night in stable condition.

The attack comes amid what is widely seen as a campaign by the military to break the PML-N – which had challenged its authority – ahead of elections due to be held this summer.

“At the time he was shot he was surrounded with party workers,” Rahim Shah, a local leader of the PML-N, said, “that is why the bullet missed the target and hit him on the arm.” A crowd swiftly mobbed the shooter and handed him over to police, Mr Shah added.

Sources in the police department told The Telegraph that Mr Iqbal’s suspected assailant, a 21-year-old man named as Abid Hussain, claimed under interrogation to have been inspired by Khadim Rizvi, a firebrand cleric who leads Tehreek-e-labbaik, a new political party solely dedicated to pursuing the death penalty for blasphemers.