Growing fears of Pakistan chaos after Khan shooting
PAKISTAN was sliding towards severe political unrest yesterday as Imran Khan doubled down on his claim that the country’s prime minister was behind a plot to kill him.
In his first address since surviving an apparent assassination attempt while leading his supporters to Islamabad to demand early elections, Mr Khan said Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister, masterminded the attack with interior minister Rana Sanaullah and a senior figure in the country’s feared intelligence agency, Major General Faisal Naseer.
“These three decided to kill me,” Mr Khan said, adding that two gunmen were involved.
The former international cricket captain dismissed a video released by the Pakistani police in which the alleged attacker claimed to have shot Mr Khan because he had offended Islamic sensibilities.
As his supporters staged protests across the country, Mr Khan appeared on a collision course with Pakistan’s all-powerful military.
Yesterday Pakistan’s army said they would file defamation charges against Mr Khan.
Mr Khan also claimed to have known of the alleged assassination plot in advance thanks to contacts he made while prime minister.
“How did I find out? Insiders told me. The day before Wazirabad, they made the plan to kill me as they saw the number of people increasing using the script of religious extremism,” he said.
Mr Khan’s Pakistan-e-tehreek (PTI) party released an X-ray image purportedly showing shrapnel from a bullet lodged in his leg.
The attack on Mr Khan’s convoy killed one man and wounded at least 10 people.
During his hospital address, Mr Khan called on his supporters to take to the streets and said that once his health improved, he would march on Islamabad with them.
In Wazirabad, some supporters gathered at the place where Mr Khan was wounded and urged the former premier to resume his march.
“It cannot stop. People are very angry, it will become more intense,” Ansar Bashir, 40, a supporter who witnessed the shooting.
In Lahore, large groups of protesters burnt tyres and blocked roads. Some threw stones at the gate of the Punjab provincial governor’s office, destroying security cameras and barriers, witnesses said.
Supporters of Mr Khan also blocked roads in the north-western city of Peshawar, while police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Islamabad and Karachi.
Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Programme at the Wilson Centre, said: “No one has any incentive to back down. No one is in the mood for compromise and conciliation. And, at a moment when cooler heads are needed, there don’t appear to be any figures with the will and capacity to bring down the political temperature”