Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, has been shot in the leg in what is being described by his supporters as an assassination attempt.
The incident took place at Wazirabad on Thursday. A gunman opened fire during a rally where Khan was delivering a speech. Khan has been whisked away to safety.
“This was an attempt to kill him, to assassinate him,” reports AFP, quoting a senior aide of Khan. Pakistan’s Geo TV reports that a male suspect has been arrested.
Khan, 70, has been conducting a series of political rallies ever since he was ousted from power in April. An immensely popular former cricketer who captained Pakistan to victory in the 1992 World Cup, Khan’s rallies have been attracting massive crowds as he holds them across the country
In October, Pakistan’s election commission disqualified Khan from holding public office on the grounds that he was illegally selling state gifts from world leaders to the tune of PKR140 million ($632,000). Khan has denied the charges.
Khan came to power in 2018. However, in April, he lost his parliamentary majority in a no-confidence vote. He tweeted at the time: “Pakistan became an independent state in 1947; but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change. It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy.”
From 1995-2004, Khan was married to Jemima Khan, who wrote and co-produced the film “What’s Love Got to Do with It?,” which premiered at Toronto and will open the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia.
