Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday claimed that he was aware of the plan to kill him, a day after an unidentified assailant fired multiple bullets at him at a rally in Wazirabad on November 3, the Dawn reported.
“I got to know the day before [the attack] that either in Wazirabad of Gujrat, they planned to kill me,” Khan said during an address to the nation. “How did I find out? Insiders told me.”
He also alleged that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and Major General Faisal were behind the attack on him.
On Friday, Khan said that he was on a container when a “burst of bullets” was directed at him and one of them hit his leg.
“Then a second burst comes, there were two people,” he said, according to the Dawn. “Because I fell down, I think he [the shooter] thought I had died and fled.”
One person was killed and 14 were injured during the attack, including Senator Faisal Javed Khan, Omer Mayar and MNA Ahmad Nasir Chattha.
The deceased was subsequently identified as Muazzam Nawaz, a supporter of Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party.
The assailant was arrested. He had told the police that he wanted to kill Khan as he was “misleading the public” and added that he had acted on his own and had no accomplice.
Khan alleged that the Pakistani government was trying to accuse him of blasphemy and turn the public against him. “They used similar methods they tried using against [former Punjab governor] Salman Taseer,” he claimed.
Taseer was assassinated by his bodyguard in Islamabad in 2011, days after he had expressed support for Asia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy.
Meanwhile, protests erupted in several cities in Pakistan on Friday against the attack on Khan.
In Lahore, supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party gathered in separate locations and burnt tyres. They also blocked several major roads in the city, according to Reuters.
In Islamabad, a clash was reported between Khan’s supporters and the police, which resorted to firing tear gas. Several party workers were also arrested, according to Geo TV.
In Lahore, party workers vandalised the property outside the governor’s house.
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