Pakistan’s Former PM, Imran Khan, Shot in Assassination Attempt

Pat Stevens/

Imran Khan has been wounded in an apparent assassination attempt during a rally in Pakistan, according to officials.

Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur, a senator from his Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf party, confirmed that Khan was injured but safe.

Local media reported that an assailant fired on Khan’s convoy as the former leader travelled through the Pakistani city of Wazirabad, part of a march through the country aimed at forcing the government of prime minister Shehbaz Sharif to hold early elections after he was ousted from office this spring.

As the sound of bullets fill the air, a shocked Khan tried to take cover but he was shot in the foot. Khan’s supporters can be seen surrounding around him, as people in the crowd can be heard screaming.

Video later shows Khan, 70, wearing a bandage on his foot, waving to supporters after getting shot before he was helped down from an open top container truck and placed carefully into a vehicle.

The politician was rushed to hospital, with local media reporting that he is out of danger. One of Khan’s supporters was killed in the attack, while nine others were wounded. 

Footage from the scene also appears to shows a suspected gunman shooting towards Khan’s convoy. A second man is seen trying to wrestle the gun from the shooter, but he manages to escape.

“This was an attempt to kill Khan, to assassinate him,” his senior aide, Raoof Hasan, said, adding that one alleged attacker had been shot dead and a second taken into police custody. 

Another footage appears to show the second shooter, whose identity has not yet been released, confessing to police that he opened fire on Khan and his supporters. 

Khan had been speaking at the rally when he was shot by the gunman.

One person was killed in the attack and nine others were wounded after the gunman opened fire in district in the Wazirabad eastern Punjab province. 

Among the wounded was Faisal Javed, a lawmaker from Tehreek-e-Insaf. In a video statement, with blood staining his clothes, Javed said Khan’s protest march to Islamabad would not stop.

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