LAHORE – Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was shot in the shin on Thursday when his anti-government protest convoy came under attack in the east of the country in what his aides said was a clear assassination attempt.
Several others in the convoy were wounded. One party member said there were reports one person had been killed. The information minister said a suspect had been arrested.
It was a clear assassination attempt. Khan was hit but hes stable. There was a lot of bleeding, said Mr Fawad Chaudhry, a spokesman for Mr Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
If the shooter had not been stopped by people there, the entire PTI leadership would have been wiped out.
Local media showed pictures of Mr Khan waving to the crowd after being evacuated from his vehicle following the shooting. There was a bandage tied around the PTI leaders leg, reported Dawn newspaper.
He was taken to hospital in Lahore after the attack in Wazirabad, nearly 200km from the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistan has a long history of political violence. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 in a gun and bomb attack after holding an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi.
In the same city, her father and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged in 1979 after being deposed by a military coup.
Mr Khan, 70, was leading a protest march in Islamabad to demand snap elections. There were hundreds of people in the convoy.
He had planned to lead the motorised caravan slowly northwards up the Grand Trunk Road to Islamabad, drawing more support along the way before entering the capital.
Party colleague Faisal Javed, who was also wounded and had blood stains on his clothes, told Geo TV from the hospital: Several of our colleagues are wounded. We heard that one of them is dead.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the shooting and ordered the Interior Minister to seek an immediate investigation.
In a tweet, Pakistans President Arif Alvi also called it a heinous assassination attempt.
I thank Allah that he is safe but injured with few bullets in his leg & hopefully non-critical, he tweeted. Embed Twitter Tweet URL A former international cricket star, Mr Khan was booted from office in April by a no-confidence vote after defections by some of his coalition partners, but he retains mass public support in the South Asian country.
Mr Khan was voted into power in 2018 on an anti-corruption platform by an electorate tired of dynastic politics.
But his mishandling of the economy and falling out with a military accused of helping his rise sealed his fate.
Since then, he has railed against the establishment and Mr Sharifs government, which he says was imposed on Pakistan by a conspiracy involving the United States.
Mr Khan has repeatedly told supporters he was prepared to die for the country, and aides have long warned of unspecified threats made on his life. REUTERS, AFP, BLOOMBERG More On This Topic Imran Khan marches for early Pakistan polls as legal woes mount Pakistan court rejects Imran Khan appeal on disqualification