“He is being taken to a hospital in Lahore, but he is not seriously wounded. A bullet hit him in the keg,” Umar told reporters.
The gunman caught by police has said that he acted independently and wanted to kill Imran Khan because “he was misleading the people,” Dawn reported.
The attack happened in the Wazirabad district in the eastern Punjab province. Khan was traveling in a large convoy of trucks and cars heading towards the capital, Islamabad, as part of his campaign aimed at forcing the government to hold early elections.
The shooting was an “assassination attempt,” party spokesman Fawad Chaudhry told rallygoers afterward in Wazirabad. He added that “it was an attack on the whole of Pakistan,” and vowed that the people would avenge it.
“Imran Khan is injured, may Allah protect him, the whole nation should pray for the life of Imran Khan,” PTI’s Farrukh Habib said on Twitter.
Injured in the assassination attempt on Imran Khan, Senator @FaisalJavedKhan speaks exclusively.… https://t.co/FgWxH7eikE
— PTI (@PTIofficial) 1667476428000
PTI’s Senator and Imran Khan’s close aide Faisal Javed has also sustained injuries during the firing.
Javed, who had blood stains on his clothes said that “several of our colleagues are wounded. We heard that one of them is dead”.
Since his ouster in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April, Khan has alleged that his ouster was a conspiracy engineered by his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and the United States — claims that both the new premier and Washington have denied.
According to the interior ministry, the Pakistan government has ordered a robe into the incident.
“I condemn the incident of firing on PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the strongest words. I have directed Interior Minister for an immediate report on the incident. I pray for the recovery and health of PTI chairman & other injured people,” Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif said.
Meanwhile, India said that it is keeping a close eye on the situation.
“It’s a development that just took place. We’re closely keeping an eye on and we’ll continue to monitor ongoing developments,” MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
Watch Pakistan: Former PM Imran Khan suffers bullet injury after shots fired at rally
