Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan injured in assassination attempt
Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan gathered to condemn the assassination attempt on November 3, 2022. AP - Fareed Khan
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Pakistan's ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan was in stable condition after being shot in the leg on Thursday on the sidelines of a political rally in what the country's president called a '
heinous assassination attempt
' .
Advertising
Read more
Former Pakistani Prime Minister
Imran Khan
was injured in the foot on Thursday after gunshots on the sidelines of a political rally, one of his close advisers told AFP.
“
Imran Khan suffered a foot injury.
He is in stable condition
,” Raoof Hasan said, saying it was an “
attempt to kill him, to assassinate
him .”
Imran Khan, who was overthrown in April by a no-confidence motion,
has been leading a "long march" since Friday, bringing together several thousand of his supporters
between the city of Lahore (east) and the capital Islamabad, to obtain the holding of early elections. .
The former cricket champion was injured by shots fired at him and other officials from his party, who were standing on top of a container placed on top of a slowly moving truck in the middle of the crowd, near Gujranwala (East).
A man armed with an automatic pistol
“
There was a guy in front of the container holding this automatic gun.
He fired a burst.
Everyone standing in the front row was hit
,” Fawad Chaudhry, former information minister in the Khan government, behind which he stood, told AFP.
People tried to seize the weapon, he said.
“
In the fight, he missed the target.
There was a lot of blood on the container
.”
According to him, six people who were standing on the container were hit and a bystander was killed.
Police did not immediately comment on the incident, or confirm reports that an assailant was killed.
Officials of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, Pakistan Justice Movement) party said he had been taken to a hospital in Lahore for treatment.
Video posted on social media shows him in hospital with a bandage wrapped around his right calf.
A "
heinous assassination attempt
"
In a tweet, Pakistani President Arif Alvi denounced a “
heinous assassination attempt
”.
“
I thank Allah that he is safe, but wounded by several bullets in the leg and hope it is not critical
”.
Pakistan has struggled for decades with violent Islamist movements that challenge the influence of central power, and several political assassinations have marked the country's history.
This attack brings back the memory of the attack which cost the life in 2007 of
Benazir Bhutto, the first woman of the modern era to have led a Muslim country
.
The sponsors of his assassination have never been identified.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Pakistan
Imran Khan