The gunman who shot and wounded Pakistan’s ex-prime minister Imran Khan stated that he attempted to assassinate the politician because he was displeased with his parade’s disruption of the call to prayer.
Khan was shot in the leg while waving to supporters from atop an open-top container truck during a protest march on Islamabad to delay quick elections.
A lone gunman opened fire on Khan’s convoy, killing one guy and injuring thirteen others in an act that has considerably escalated the political turmoil engulfing Pakistan since Khan’s ouster in April.
The shooter was apprehended at the scene, and authorities released a video of him in detention, in which he purportedly confessed to the shooting and claimed to have acted alone.
“I did it because (Khan) was misleading the public,” a man with his wrists tied behind his back in what looks to be a police station says in the video.
He stated that he was furious with the procession for disrupting the five daily calls to prayer that summon Muslims to the mosque.
The attempted assassination of Khan, who is currently recovering at the Shaukat Khanum hospital after being shot in the shin and thigh with two bullets, provoked protests across Pakistan on Thursday night.
In protest of the assassination attempt, tens of thousands of protesters once again took to the streets this morning, waving flags and chanting slogans.
In several parts of the country this morning, hundreds of people took to the streets waving flags and chanting slogans in protest of the murder attempt.
Friday, at the cordoned-off scene of a gun attack in Wazirabad, supporters of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan halt vehicles and block a road during a demonstration outside a container truck, one day after an assassination attempt on Khan.
The attempted assassination of Khan, who is currently recovering at the Shaukat Khanum hospital after being shot in the shin and thigh with two bullets, provoked protests across Pakistan on Thursday night.
Thursday night in Peshawar, supporters of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan demonstrate against an assassination attempt against Khan.
Thursday night, protesters in Pakistan set fires as they demonstrated over the attempted assassination of Imran Khan.
Thursday in Rawalpindi, supporters of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan demonstrate against the assassination attempt against Khan.
The shooter was apprehended at the site, and authorities later released a video of him confessing to the shooting and claiming he acted alone. “Only Imran Khan was my intended victim,” the suspect, known as Faisal Butt, stated. “He (Khan) was deceiving the people, and I could no longer tolerate it.”
Later footage shows Khan with a bandaged leg being assisted through a room following the shooting.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is assisted in Wazirabad after being shot in the shin.
A video shows Khan standing in front of an open-top container truck during a protest march calling for early elections when a gunman shot an automatic handgun at the politician.
Asad Umar, a close aide to Khan, stated that the protests will continue until the former prime minister’s demands are realized, including the holding of hasty elections.
In addition to calling for fast elections, Khan’s party says he is also demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who led the coalition of parties that drove Khan from power in April.
Khan’s supporters reassembled near the site of the attempted assassination attempt early on Friday and urged the former prime minister to resume his march on Islamabad.
“The march must proceed.” It cannot cease. Ansar Bashir, 40, a Khan fan who was close to the event, stated while clutching a flag of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, “People are really upset, and it will intensify” (PTI).
When he was attacked, the 70-year-old former international cricket hero had been heading a campaign caravan of thousands from Lahore to the capital Islamabad for the last week.
The terrible moment the politician took cover after being shot and wounded at the rally was captured on video.
During a protest march demanding hasty elections, Khan was filmed standing in front of an open-top container truck when the assailant opened fire with an automatic weapon.
Khan, 70, attempted to find cover as the sound of gunfire filled the air, but he was struck in the leg. Khan’s team soon surrounded him as screams could be heard from the crown.
The graphic footage from the moment depicts the alleged shooter opening fire on Khan. A second man is seen attempting to pull the gun from the would-be assassin, who is attempting to flee before being apprehended.
Jemima Goldsmith, a British socialite and screenwriter and ex-wife of Khan, tweeted a photo of the man who subdued the shooter and hailed him as a “hero.”
Goldsmith, who has two boys with Khan named Kasim and Sulaiman Isa, stated, “The news we dread.” God bless him, he’s okay. And thank you from his sons to the hero in the crowd who stopped the shooter.’
Khan is later seen on video with a bandage on his leg waving to supporters before being assisted down from an open-top container truck and carefully placed in a vehicle.
On Friday in Wazirabad, Pakistan, people yell slogans as they protest the shooting event during a long march led by Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan.
Thursday in Lahore, supporters of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan demonstrate against the assassination attempt against Khan.
Thursday in Lahore, Pakistan, supporters of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan demonstrate against the murder attempt on Khan outside the hospital where Khan is being treated.
In Karachi, Pakistan, on Thursday, supporters of Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, yell slogans as they block a road during a demonstration against the shooting of their leader’s motorcade.
In Karachi, Pakistan, supporters of the party of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, yell slogans as they block a road during a demonstration condemning a gun attack on their leader’s convoy.
Thursday in Peshawar, supporters of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan demonstrate against the murder attempt on Khan.
During a protest in Karachi on Thursday, supporters of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan block a road following a shooting incident during his lengthy march in Wazirabad.
Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan was injured in the leg during an attempted assassination during a rally. After being shot, he is seen waving to fans in this image.
Among the injured was Tehreek-e-Insaf legislator Faisal Javed. Blood-stained Javed declared in a video statement that Khan’s protest march to Islamabad would continue.
One person was murdered and nine people were injured when the shooter opened fire in the Wazirabad district of the eastern Punjab province.
The history of coups and assassinations in Pakistan
After holding an electoral rally in Rawalpindi in 2007, the two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is slain by rifle and bomb. A few months before to her murder, she survives a suicide bomb assassination attempt in Karachi, when at least 139 people are killed in one of the bloodiest incidents in the country’s history.
Former army chief Pervez Musharraf assumes power in a bloodless coup in 1999. In June 2001, he is sworn in as president and chief of state. In 2008, he resigns, and Benazir Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, becomes president.
President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq is killed when the Hercules C-130 aircraft he was aboard crashes under strange circumstances in 1988. Conspiracy theories assert that a container of mangoes placed on the plane just before takeoff included a timer that emitted a chemical that incapacitated the cockpit crew.
1979 – Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the father of Benazir who was elected prime minister in 1970, is executed for conspiracy to commit a political murder by Zia ul-Haq on a contested conviction.
Zia ul-Haq seizes power following a coup against the Bhutto government in 1977. He places Bhutto under house arrest, institutes martial law, suspends the constitution, and prohibits political parties.
1973: Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is chosen as Pakistan’s prime minister, succeeding General Yahya Khan.
In the first military coup in Pakistan’s history, Governor-General Iskander Mirza imposes martial law, with General Ayub Khan serving as its main administrator. Mirza is banished after Ayub Khan assumes the presidency and dismisses him.
After the partition of India in 1947, Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan is shot and killed during a political rally in Rawalpindi in 1951.
Khan escaped with two bullet wounds to his shin and thigh after a gunman sprayed pistol fire at his customized container truck as it moved slowly through a dense throng in Wazirabad, around 160 kilometers east of Islamabad.
Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, who was standing behind Khan, described the attack as follows: ‘There was a man in front of the container with an automatic handgun. He launched a volley. Everyone standing in the very front row was struck.
According to him, people in the crowd attempted to seize the weapon from the assailant. In that conflict, he missed the mark. So much blood was on the container.’
Senior aide Raoof Hasan stated, “This was an effort to kill Khan, an assassination,” as demonstrators flooded the streets in various parts of the country and his followers demanded justice.
Among the injured was Tehreek-e-Insaf legislator Faisal Javed. Blood-stained Javed declared in a video statement that Khan’s protest march to Islamabad would continue.
Several politicians of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have accused the government of involvement in the attempted assassination, which the administration has denied.
According to Punjab government spokesperson and PTI leader Mussarat Jamshed Cheema, Khan had asked that police probe Prime Minister Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and intelligence chief Major-General Faisal, accusing them of being behind the attack.
Khan and his party have provided no proof to substantiate the charge, but Sharif and Sanaulah have denounced the incident and denied involvement.
Chaudhry stated that PTI representatives would meet later on Friday to determine the immediate status of Khan’s campaign march, but pledged that it would proceed.
He tweeted, “The long march for real freedom and the movement for people’s rights will continue until an announcement is made regarding the general elections.”
Currently, Khan’s campaign truck is a crime scene, blocked off and guarded by commandos while forensic specialists examine the surroundings.
Thousands of Khan supporters, many carrying party banners, gathered overnight for a glimpse.
Pakistan has struggled for decades with Islamist militancy, and leaders are routinely the subject of murder attempts.
The bombing aroused further fears about Pakistan’s deepening political instability, a nuclear-armed nation with a population of 225 million.
Pakistan has a lengthy history of political assassinations, including the 2007 murder of Benazir Bhutto, the first democratically elected woman to head a Muslim country.
The attack occurred less than a week after Khan and thousands of supporters began their march in Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab.
Footage from the location also appears to show a suspect firing at Khan’s convoy (circled on the left, wearing a black top). A second man (wearing a blue and red cycle top) is seen attempting to take the gun away from the shooter, but the shooter gets to flee.
The shooter escapes, but a large throng pursues him down the street.
Khan’s ex-wife, British screenwriter Jemima Goldsmith, tweeted a photo of the man who subdued the gunman and referred to him as a “hero.”
The video captures the moment the alleged gunman was apprehended as a swarm of Khan’s followers attempted to attack him.
After opening fire on the former Prime Minister, a throng of Khan’s followers attempts to strike the suspect.
During his so-called “long march,” 70-year-old Khan ascended a shipping container hauled by a truck each day, delivering speeches to crowds of thousands in cities and villages along the route.
Since April, when he was removed from office by a vote of no confidence in Parliament, Khan has claimed that his replacement, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and the United States were behind a plot to remove him from office. Both Sharif and the United States have refuted these allegations.
Khan, a former cricket star and national sports hero turned Islamist politician, remains an immensely popular figure, and his convoy’s journey, which is anticipated to culminate in an open-ended protest in Islamabad, might pose a big challenge to the new government.
Khan has also been an outspoken opponent of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment for its support of Sharif.
Khan struck out during a speech on Saturday, declaring, “We are not sheep, we are human beings, and no one is going to accept the imported thieves of this government or their facilitators.”
Khan has pledged that his march will be nonviolent and aimed at compelling Sharif to seek early elections; nonetheless, his murder attempt demonstrates how polarized the nation is.
This request for early elections has been continuously rejected by the prime minister, who has stated that parliamentary elections will be held as scheduled in 2023.
Pakistan’s elections commission barred Khan from holding public office for five years for allegedly selling official gifts illegally and hiding assets while premier.
Khan, who is contesting his disqualification in a pending court case, has stated that he will sue Chief Election Commissioner Sikandara Raja for labelling him a “dishonest person.”
Khan has repeatedly assured his fans that he is willing to sacrifice his life for the country, and his advisors have long warned of various threats to his life.
The incident was condemned internationally, particularly by the United States, which had strained relations with Khan when he was in charge.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated, “Violence has no place in politics, and we appeal on all sides to desist from violence, harassment, and intimidation.”
The attack comes at a time when Pakistan is coping with the repercussions of massive floods that devastated this Islamic nation over the summer, killing 1,735 and displacing 33 million.
Political instability in Pakistan gives rise to violence
The attempted assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan during a rally has renewed fears about the country’s escalating instability.
Since Khan’s expulsion in an April vote of no confidence in Parliament, Khan has organized enormous rallies across the country, where he has riled up audiences with assertions that his replacement, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and the United States conspired against him.
Washington and the new premier have both refuted these charges.
Khan began his march to Islamabad a week ago as part of his campaign to compel Sharif and his government to organize early elections in the aftermath of his resignation.
The prime minister has consistently rejected Khan’s request for early polls, stating that parliamentary elections will occur in 2023 as scheduled.
The shooter stated that he targeted Khan because he was misleading the public. Faisal Butt stated, ‘I was unable to endure it, so I attempted to murder him. I made every effort to murder him. I intended to murder Imran Khan and no one else.
The attack, in which the shooter claimed responsibility, occurs amid heightened tensions in Pakistan.
Khan has been an outspoken opponent of Pakistan’s mighty military for supporting the present Sharif, and he has refused to abandon his ambitions to march on the capital.
Khan struck out during a speech on Saturday, declaring, “We are not sheep, we are human beings, and no one is going to accept the imported thieves of this government or their facilitators.”
Although Khan had the democratic right to conduct a demonstration in Islamabad, the military stated that no one would be permitted to destabilize the country.
Authorities in Islamabad have already increased security measures around the city in an effort to prevent conflicts and violence.
Pakistan’s elections commission barred Khan from holding public office for five years for allegedly selling official gifts illegally and hiding assets while premier.
Khan, who is contesting his disqualification in a pending court case, has stated that he will sue Chief Election Commissioner Sikandara Raja for labelling him a “dishonest person.”
Pakistan has a lengthy history of political assassinations, including the 2007 murder of Benazir Bhutto, the first democratically elected woman to head a Muslim country.
She was killed when a massive bomb exploded near her vehicle