Wazirabad, Pakistan:
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan recovered in hospital on Friday after an assassination attempt in which he suffered a gunshot wound to his leg.
The attack on his convoy, apparently by a lone gunman, killed one man and injured at least ten others, significantly increasing the stakes in the political crisis that has gripped the country since Khan’s ouster in April. .
Khan “was stable and doing well” at Shaukat Khanum Hospital in the eastern city of Lahore, his doctor Faisal Sultan told AFP on Friday morning.
The 70-year-old former international cricketer had been leading a campaign convoy of thousands from Lahore to the capital Islamabad since last week when he was attacked.
Khan escaped with at least one gunshot wound to his right leg when a gunman sprayed gunfire at his modified container truck as it drove slowly through a dense crowd in Wazirabad, about 170 kilometers (100 miles) east of Islamabad.
“Everyone in the front row was hit,” former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, who was behind Khan, told AFP.
Senior aide Raoof Hasan told AFP it was “an attempt to kill him, to kill him”.
Several leaders of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in Pakistan have blamed the government for the assassination attempt, which authorities have denied.
Chaudhry said PTI officials would meet later Friday to discuss the immediate fate of Khan’s campaign march, but promised it would go ahead.
“The real freedom march will continue and the people’s rights movement will continue until a general election announcement,” he tweeted.
Hazards
For now, Khan’s campaign truck has become a crime scene, cordoned off and guarded by commandos as forensic experts search the area.
At night, thousands of Khan supporters gathered for a look, many waving party banners.
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Thursday that the attacker had been taken into custody and shared an apparent confession video that circulated online.
“I did it because (Khan) misled the public,” says a confused man in the video, seen with his hands tied behind his back in what appears to be a police station.
He added that he was angry at the procession for making noise during the call to prayer that calls Muslims to the mosque five times a day.
Pervaiz Elahi, the prime minister of Punjab, said agents who leaked the video will be disciplined.
Pakistan has struggled with Islamist militants for decades and politicians are often the target of assassination attempts.
The attack on Khan had echoes of the 2007 assassination of another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, who died when a huge bomb exploded near her vehicle as she greeted supporters in the city of Rawalpindi as she stood through the roof hatch.
Khan was removed from office in April by a vote of no confidence after defection by some of his coalition partners, but he retains huge support in the South Asian country.
Khan was voted to power in 2018 on an anti-corruption platform by an electorate tired of dynastic politics, but his poor handling of the economy — and feud with an army accused of aiding his rise — sealed his fate.
He has since spoken out against the establishment and government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which he says was imposed on Pakistan by a “conspiracy” involving the United States.
Khan has repeatedly told supporters he was willing to die for the country, and aides have long warned of unspecified threats on his life.
The attack drew international condemnation, including from the United States, which had uneasy relations with Khan when he was in power.
“Violence has no place in politics and we call on all parties to refrain from violence, intimidation and intimidation,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
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