Wounded Imran Khan says Islamabad protest march WILL go ahead this week after former Pakistan PM survived assassination attempt by gunman
- Imran Khan was ousted from office in April after a no-confidence vote
- The march is intended to pressure Prime Minster Sharif to hold early elections
- The former Pakistan PM was wounded after he was shot in the leg on Thursday
- The march was suspended in Wazirabad after the assassination attempt
Imran Khan said the Islamabad protest march will go ahead this week after the former Pakistan prime minister survived an assassination attempt by a gunman on Thursday.
Khan was ousted from office in April in a no-confidence vote in parliament.
He organised a march on Islamabad to pressure Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s government to hold early elections but Sharif says elections will take place as scheduled, in 2023.
The march on the capital was suspended in Wazirabad, a district in eastern Punjab province, after a gunman opened fire, wounding him and killing one of his supporters.
Imran Khan said the Islamabad protest march will go ahead this week after his assassination attempt by a gunman on Thursday
Sitting in a wheelchair, his right leg bandaged and elevated, Khan spoke from the Shaukat Khanum hospital, where he was admitted after he received bullet wounds to his right leg.
He revealed X-rays of his legs showing bullets still inside his limbs after the assassination attempt on Thursday.
He repeated his demand for an investigation into the shooting and the resignation of three powerful figures in the government and the military whom he alleges were involved in staging the attack on him.
Khan led an initial protest march in May but it ended when supporters clashed with police in the capital.
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan has revealed X-rays of his legs showing bullets still inside his limbs after an assassination attempt that saw him shot in the leg by a gunman at a rally on Thursday
The latest protest march, which started on October 28, was peaceful until Thursday’s attack.
The shooting has raised concerns about growing political instability in Pakistan, which has a history of political violence and assassinations.
Describing the attack, Khan said he remembers hearing a ‘burst of bullets’ and a sudden searing pain in his leg as a bullet hit him.
‘Because I fell down, I think the shooter thought I had died and fled,’ Khan said, adding that he thought there were two shooters.
Speaking on Friday, he claimed there were two shooters involved. This could not be immediately verified.
A convoy transports Khan after he was discharged from the Shaukat Khanum hospital in Lahore today
The assassination attempt has sparked violent protests, with police officers firing tear gas at protesters wielding stones and slingshots in Pakistan.
The ex PM said the march will take 10 to 15 days to reach Rawalpindi, where convoys from other parts of the country are expected to join the rally.
Khan has accused Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan and army general Faisal Naseer of working with the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s spy agency, of orchestrating the shooting.
He offered no evidence for his allegations, which were rejected by Sharif’s government and the military spokesman said the allegations were not true.
Khan was discharged from the hospital later on Sunday.
As ex-husband Imran Khan survives a gunman’s assassination attempt in Pakistan… Jemima begs police for help after mob threaten her family
By Charlotte Griffiths and Mark Hookham for the Mail on Sunday
Jemima Khan (pictured) urged the Metropolitan Police to do more to protect her family following a failed attempt to assassinate her former husband last week
Film producer and writer Jemima Khan last night accused Scotland Yard of ignoring disturbing threats by protesters to break into her bedroom.
Dozens of rowdy demonstrators regularly gather outside Ormeley Lodge, the childhood home of Ms Khan near Richmond Park in South-West London, in protests against her ex-husband Imran Khan.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, Ms Khan revealed that the demonstrations, which have taken place numerous times over the past eight months, have included disturbing threats made against her and her children.
In a direct appeal to the Metropolitan Police, Ms Khan, 48, urged them to do more to protect her family following a failed attempt to assassinate her former husband in Pakistan last week.
Mr Khan, 70, the former cricket star and prime minister of Pakistan, was shot in the upper thigh and lower leg after a gunman opened fire during a rally in Punjab province on Thursday.
Despite the couple having divorced in 2004, Ms Khan and her family have become the focus of angry protests in London by supporters of Mr Khan’s political rival Nawaz Sharif.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that in April, shortly after Mr Khan was ousted as prime minister, a message circulated online urging a crowd to gather outside ‘Jemima’s House’ in Richmond.
The message included a sinister image of the Khans’ two sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, both in their 20s, and another family member with a red cross struck through it.
In April, shortly after Mr Khan was ousted as prime minister, a message circulated online urging a crowd to gather outside ‘Jemima’s House’ in Richmond. The message included a sinister image of the Khans’ two sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, both in their 20s, and another family member with a red cross struck through it (pictured)
Ms Khan revealed that demonstrations have taken place numerous times over the past eight months outside her childhood home in south-west London (pictured)
During the demonstration on April 17, a man with a loudspeaker threatened to break into the 18th Century Georgian home, where Ms Khan’s 88-year-old mother Lady Annabel Goldsmith lives.
Addressing a crowd of more than 50 protesters, the man said demonstrators could ‘come up to your bedrooms, we would come in by jumping over the walls of your homes’.
In another video, released on TikTok, two demonstrators make sexually suggestive gestures as they dance outside the house.
After the demonstration, Ms Khan showed officers a transcript of the threats that had been made against her family. She claims they have taken no action.
She said: ‘A crowd of baying men regularly gather outside my mother’s house to loudly threaten me and my children by name, saying they will “break into my bedroom” – and apparently because those threats are being made in a foreign language which the police don’t understand, nothing can be done to prevent it…
‘I contacted the Met Police… to explain the nature of the threats being made, which also exist online, over six months ago and they said they would follow it up but I’ve heard nothing since.
‘The threats in Urdu continue outside my mother’s house. Given the assassination attempt on my ex-husband and father of my children, I hope the police might now be convinced to take threats from his political opponents more seriously.’
Around 20 police officers attended the April 17 demonstration but no arrests were made. Claims have circulated online that officers tucked into biryani curry provided by the demonstrators.
The Met Police said: ‘Officers were present following a protest . . . The group later dispersed. The food was obtained from a van providing hot food nearby but they had surplus meals after the event had finished so offered it to officers.’
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