Imran Khan Claims He Kew about the Assassination Plot

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Nov 4: A day after he survived an alleged assassination attempt, the former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday claimed that he knew about the assassination plot and yet went ahead with his “long march.”

“I will come to the details of the attack later. I got to know the day before the attack that either in Wazirabad or in Gujrat, they planned to kill me,” the former prime minister claimed in a video address, his first since the attack, from a Lahore hospital. Wazirabad and Gujrat are towns that fall on the route of his Lahore-to-Islamabad march against the army establishment-backed federal government.

“I was hit by four bullets,” said the former cricket captain as he showed the stitches on his calf, seated in a wheelchair, dressed in a blue hospital gown, a drip attached to his arm and a cast on his leg, with the national flag in the background. He said there were two shooters. The police have so far arrested one man who fired a pistol and two other “suspects.”

“Four people planned my assassination in a closed room. I made a video and kept it. I have told that if anything happens to me, then the video should be released,” Imran Khan added.

On Friday, workers of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party held protests across cities against the assassination attempt. Imran Khan was leading a long march to the capital Islamabad to press the government to accept his demand for a fresh election. Imran Khan-led government was ousted from power earlier this year. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry has asked the Punjab provincial government to constitute a high-level joint investigation team (JIT) to probe the case.

The police have arrested three people so far. Naveed Mohammad Basheer, the man who shot at Imran Khan, was arrested on Thursday from the spot of the incident. He later confessed to the police that he tried to assassinate Imran Khan because the former prime minister was “misleading the people.” The police have also arrested two more suspects, Waqas and Sajid Butt, who they believed sold Basheer a pistol and bullets for PKR 20,000. The pistol did not have a number or license, the police added. They were arrested from Wazirabad.

The arrested attacker has told the police on camera that he was acting alone — “I was upset as he’s misleading people and weaning them away from Islam’s tenets” — but Mr Khan has blamed three leaders specifically: PM Shehbaz Sharif, internal security minister Rana Sanaullah and Major General Faisal Naseer, who leads the intelligence agency ISI. The government has denied any role and promised a fair probe.

Imran Khan has been demanding snap polls ever since his government fell seven months ago after losing the defence establishment’s confidence. He has since been campaigning against the army and intelligence agency ISI’s “interference” that “has undermined democracy by installing a puppet government.”

He started his “long march” in October last week to demand resignation of the new government formed by his two main opponents that are each other’s rivals otherwise, the Sharifs’ Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and the Bhuttos’ Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Khan, 70, suffered a bullet injury in the right leg on Thursday, when Basheer fired a volley of bullets at him at Wazirabad.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Friday that the attack on Imran Khan was a manifestation of the religious extremism in the country and asserted that his party considered the ex-premier as a “political rival and not an enemy.” Addressing a press conference, Mr Sanaullah said the second video of the attacker shows that he was indoctrinated by extremists.

“The attacker is seen arguing with the investigators,” he said, adding that the government has tried to remove its contents from social media sites. “In the video, the suspect’s statements are very concerning and dangerous. Such allegations were made in the past as well. And after the video went viral, it is possible that such narratives will get fuelled,” he said.

He said that it was “very saddening” that Mr Khan blamed people for his attempted assassination without any investigation or proof. Mr Sanaullah also raised questions on the delay in the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) in the case and expressed concern over the leaked statement of the suspect – taken into custody from the crime scene.

Separately, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif addressing the National Assembly said the attack on Imran Khan was being used for political objectives. He said that “by taking the names of government and military officials”, the entire matter was being pushed towards an unchartered territory. “Don’t turn this incident into a victim of politics. Go after the suspects. Constitute a JIT (joint investigation team). But if this incident is being used to defame an individual or institution, then I will condemn it,” he said.

Imran Khan, who was ousted from power in April after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, has talked about a ‘threat letter’ from the US and claimed that it was part of a foreign conspiracy to remove him as he was not acceptable for following an independent foreign policy. The US has bluntly rejected the allegations.