Dhe former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was shot by an assassin during a protest march. The condition of the 70-year-old former cricket star is “stable,” Khan’s adviser Raoof Hasan told the AFP news agency on Thursday. The attacker was shot. A second man was arrested accordingly.
Punjab State Police confirmed seven people were injured and one killed when an attacker from the crowd fired shots at the container where Khan and several other leaders of Khan’s PTI party were staying in Wazirabad. “It was an attempt to kill him, to murder him,” Hasan said. Pakistani President Arif Alvi condemned the attack as “a heinous assassination attempt”. “I thank Allah that he is safe,” Alvi wrote on Twitter.
Khan had been leading a so-called long march from Lahore in north-east Pakistan to the capital Islamabad since last Friday to force early elections – although the country’s electoral commission in October banned him for five years from all political offices for alleged involvement “in corrupt practices”. had blocked.
Khan blamed ‘foreign conspiracy’ for fall
The former cricket star came to power in Pakistan in 2018 on a promise to fight corruption and nepotism. During his reign, however, the country’s economy had plunged into a deep crisis. In addition, repression against political opponents continued to increase.
The opposition accused Khan of politically exploiting corruption investigations in order to pull opponents out of circulation. In the spring, several parties finally left the coalition with Khan’s PTI and supported a no-confidence vote. Eventually, Shehbaz Sharif, brother of former Prime Minister Navaz Sharif, was elected Khan’s successor.
Khan has since blamed a “foreign conspiracy” for his downfall and regularly calls on his supporters to demonstrate for new elections.
