Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Friday said he knew beforehand that there would be an assassination attempt on him during his protest march in Wazirabad of Punjab province. Addressing the nation from hospital, Khan, who suffered an injury in his right leg, said he was hit by four bullets.
“I got to know the day before the attack that either in Wazirabad or in Gujrat, they planned to kill me,” Imran Khan, dressed in a blue hospital gown, a drip attached to his arm and a cast on his leg, said.
One person died and more than 10 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders and workers were injured after two assailants fired bullets at a container-mounted truck in Wazirabad area of Punjab province, where Imran Khan was leading a protest march against the government.
Khan was shifted to Shaukat Khanum hospital in Lahore, where an operation was performed. Khan is stable now, his party said on Friday.
One gunman, identified as Naveed Mohammad Basheer, was arrested and he later confessed that he attacked Khan because “he was trying to mislead the public”.
The former PM said three others, separate from the ones who he had named in a tape, had plotted to kill him. “I have a video with me, if something happens to me, the video will be released,” he said.
Earlier, he had claimed that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Major General Faisal, who leads the intelligence agency ISI, plotted to kill him.
Khan alleged that the “government and its handlers” had planned to get him murdered in the same way former Punjab governor Salman Taseer was killed.
“How did I find out? Insiders told me. The day before Wazirabad, they made the plan to kill me as they saw the number of people increasing at my rallies,” the ousted Pakistani premier said.
“Firstly, they accused me of blasphemy…they made tapes and released them and PMLN projected it, I knew who was doing it…This (the attempted assassination) happened exactly according to the script,” he further said.
Narrating the sequence of events, Imran Khan said he was on the container when a “burst of bullets” was directed at him, causing him to get shot in the leg and fall down.
“Then a second burst comes, there were two people. Because I fell down, I think he (the shooter) thought I had died and fled,” Khan said.
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The former Pakistan PM said if the “two bullet sprays” had been synchronised, he would not have survived.
Imran said he would have been fatally hurt if “two heroes” were not present during the long march.
“I salute martyr Muazzam and Ibtisam, the way he caught the attacker…if it wasn’t for his bravery the attacker would have fired more bullets,” he said.
Dr Faisal Sultan, who is treating the cricketer-turned-politician, said X-rays of Khan’s right leg showed that his tibia was damaged, PTI reported.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief vowed to take to the streets once again after recovering from the attack. He asserted that he did not care about his life and refused to remain under the “slavery of these thieves”.
“As soon as I get well, I will give the call for the Islamabad and come out onto the streets,” he said.