Pakistan’s Imran Khan injured in apparent assassination attempt

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Imran Khan has been shot and wounded in an apparent assassination attempt, an act of violence against one of Pakistan’s most popular and influential political leaders that shocked the country.

Khan, 70, who was ousted as prime minister in a no-confidence vote in April, was injured in his leg and was not in a critical condition, according to Pakistani officials. Pakistan’s president Arif Alvi wrote on Twitter that Khan was “safe but injured with few bullets in his leg and hopefully non-critical”.

Officials said an assailant fired on Khan’s convoy as the former leader travelled through the city of Wazirabad, part of a march intended to challenge the government of prime minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Officials from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party said several others appeared to be injured in the shooting, with Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur, a PTI senator, telling the Financial Times that at least four were hurt. The PTI posted on Twitter a video of senator Faisal Javed Khan with bloodstains and bandages on his face.

Taimur added that one person had been arrested.

Sharif “severely condemned” the attack. “Violence should have no place in our country’s politics,” the PM wrote on Twitter. He said he had ordered the interior minister to make an immediate report on the incident.

Ahsan Iqbal, planning minister and a senior member of Sharif’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, said: “Thank God [Khan] is safe.”

Since his removal as premier, Khan’s support has soared as his populist messaging strikes a chord at a time of painful inflation.

Khan, a former cricket star, last Friday launched the week-long march through Punjab province to the capital, Islamabad, in an effort to whip up a large enough show of support to topple Sharif as prime minister and force early elections.

After the shooting, Khan was taken in an ambulance to the Shaukat Khanum Memorial hospital in Lahore. One PTI leader told the FT that Khan was expected to recover soon.

Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper quoted Imran Ismail, a senior PTI member who was standing with Khan when he was attacked, as saying the shots were clearly directed at him. “It was a straight fire,” Ismail said. “The bullet was meant to kill, not scare.”

Pakistan has a grim history of political violence. In 2007, the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber at an election rally.

Khan was first elected in 2018 on an anti-corruption platform, but struggled with economic challenges while in office — paving the way for his removal.

Thursday’s shooting comes at a volatile time in Pakistani politics, with rival political leaders engaged in an increasingly tense public stand-off. Khan and government leaders have in recent months frequently levelled bitter allegations against each other.

Pakistan’s election commission last month barred Khan from holding office over allegations he mishandled gifts he received while prime minister. Many analysts nonetheless expected the ruling would be overturned in time for him to contest national elections, which have to be held by next year at the latest.

Khan has also engaged in a rare stand-off with Pakistan’s powerful military, who last week publicly criticised his “unconstitutional wishes”.

On Monday, he wrote of the crowds accompanying him on the march to the capital that for six months he had been “witnessing a revolution”.

“[The] only question is will it be a soft one through the ballot box or a destructive one through bloodshed?” Khan wrote.