Gujranwala: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was shot at in a rally in Pakistan’s Punjab yesterday. Imran Khan is receiving intensive care in hospital after he was injured by a bullet in his leg.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan (70) stepped down last April. A no-confidence motion against Imran Khan’s regime was brought in Parliament as the main party broke away from the coalition led by him and joined the opposition.
But before the confidence vote could be met, he resigned from his post.
Subsequently, the Shebaz Sharif-led government came to power. He alleged that Pakistan was back in the hands of the corrupt and that the military and intelligence agencies were underestimating democracy.
Shebaz Sharif-led government leveled several charges against Imran Khan. Thus, he was made MP. The Election Commission of Pakistan decided to disqualify him from the post. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party recently called on party workers and supporters of Imran Khan to stage nationwide protests against the move.
In this case, the PTI party announced that it will hold a rally from the Punjab province of Pakistan to the capital Islamabad against the government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Imran Khan went to Gujranwala in Punjab yesterday to participate in it.
Imran Khan wanted to address the crowd of volunteers there at Allawala Chowk. After that, he got on top of a container lorry.
Within minutes, Imran Khan was shot by two unidentified men hiding in the crowd of volunteers. One is said to have fired with a pistol and the other with a machine gun. As he stood under the lorry and fired, the bullet grazed Imran Khan’s right leg. As he crouched down, he was surrounded by volunteers. Subsequent bullets fired by the miscreants also hit the volunteers. 14 people were injured. One of them died. Among the injured was Faisal Javed, a close friend of Imran Khan and a member of the Senate. PTI local leader Ahmed Sadda was also injured.
Imran Khan was immediately rushed to a hospital in Lahore. He is receiving intensive care there.
The shooters could not get close to Imran Khan as there were many volunteers in the rally. He luckily survived as the bullet hit his leg. One of the shooters was captured by the volunteers and handed over to the police. The police arrested him and took him for questioning. Another appears to have escaped. It is noteworthy that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was shot at during a rally in 2017.
Confession of the shooter: The gunman claimed that he had come to Wazirabad to shoot Imran Khan on the day the rally was due to mislead people.