Imran Khan wounded in shooting at protest
A gunman opened fire at a protest rally in eastern Pakistan early yesterday, wounding former Prime Minister Imran Khan in the leg and killing one of his supporters, his party and police said.
Nine other people also were hurt. The gunman was immediately arrested, and police later released a video of him in custody, allegedly confessing to the shooting and saying he acted alone.
It was not clear under what conditions he made his statement.
“Only Imran Khan was my target,” said the suspect, identified as Faisal Butt by Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb.
Khan, 70, underwent surgery at Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore, tweeted Omar Ayub Khan, a senior leader of the ex-Premier’s Tehreeke-Insaf party.
Khan was seen with a bandage on his right leg, just above the foot, according to reports and a blurry image from the protest.
The shooting was an “assassination attempt”, party spokesman Fawad Chaudhry told rallygoers afterwards in Wazirabad.
He added that “it was an attack on the whole of Pakistan”, and vowed that the people would avenge it.
The violence, which follows Khan’s ouster as Prime Minister in a no-confidence vote in April, raised new concerns about growing political instability in Pakistan, a country with a long history of political violence and assassinations.
Since he lost the vote in Parliament, Khan has mobilised mass rallies across the nuclear-armed nation of 225 million, whipping up crowds with claims that he was a victim of a conspiracy by his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and the United States — allegations that both the Premier and Washington deny.
Sharif condemned yesterday’s attack and ordered his Government to investigate the incident.
He said he was praying for Khan, adding: “Violence should have no place in our country’s politics.”
The White House also condemned the attack and hoped for the swift recovery of all the wounded.
“We call on all parties to remain peaceful and refrain from violence,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
The attack happened in the Wazirabad district in the eastern Punjab province where the former cricket star-turned-Islamist politician was travelling in a large protest convoy of trucks and cars heading for the capital of Islamabad.
The convoy is part of his campaign aimed at forcing the Government to hold early elections. Khan’s supporters rallied in different parts of the country after the shooting.