Pakistan's former PM Imran Khan shot in assassination attempt
Hello. I’m Julia Chatterley. And we begin with breaking news from two locations. North Korea has just launched another suspected ballistic missile. We’ll have more on all the details on that in just a moment’s time. But first to Pakistan. The former Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, has been shot and injured His party says an unidentified gunmen opened fire at a rally putting his foot. They’re calling it an assassination attempt. This video was released in just the past few minutes showing calm, being helped into a car. Let’s go straight now to Safia Southey, who’s in Islamabad for
us. Severe. What more do we know about his health and who else perhaps was injured in this attack to Julie? We know that this happened in the town of Good Traveler. We know that Imran Khan has been shot in the foot. He’s been taken directly to the main city of Lahore, one of the largest cities in the country, which is close to Gujarat. We also know by members of his party, the BCCI, that there has been one death, one person has died in this shooting that took place on his convoy. We’ve seen images of Senator
Fester Javaid, who is a close associate of Imran Khan, who usually travels with him on these rallies. He’s been shot in the face. He’s asked for people to pray for
this rally, this long march about a week ago calling for early elections. And he had said that he fears for his life. And we’ve seen for our Chaudhry former information minister, a senior party leader of the PTI, making very charge statements that while that party is a party of peace, that there will be revenge for this, the blood of their workers has flowed, the blood of their leader has flowed. And it’s a very politically charged atmosphere in this country, which is already very polarized because of the various political developments that have taken place here in
Pakistan over the past couple of months. We’re waiting for the interior minister to start a press conference to explain who was behind the dark, what actually unfolded. There have been visuals that have been splashed across all local channels. We’re just trying to figure out what’s actually happened. But there is without a doubt, the fact that the convoy of Imran Khan, a hugely, immensely popular politician and former cricket player here in this country, his convoy has been attacked and one person is dead with at least three others injured apart from Imran Khan. Julia, very it’s interesting.
And you mentioned it. And it’s not just Imran Khan himself, but those around him have been concerned about threats to his life. And ever since he was ousted as prime minister, he’s been increasingly vocal against the incumbent government. I just wonder when we’re looking at these images, what security does he have, what security around him and how has that changed since he was prime minister, particularly in light of the threats to his life? And they’ve been ongoing Well, Julia, every time we’ve had press you know, press conferences with Imran Khan, press briefings with Imran Khan,
we’ve been told by Khan and we’ve no security detail that travels with him. A private security detail of the attack also took place in the province of Punjab when Imran Klein’s party holds the provincial government. He has again said that he has enough security from the present government in the past couple of weeks. The government itself had said that he’s leading a bloody march. He this past week, for example, in Pakistan has been highly polarized. It’s almost like a microcosm of what’s been happening in the past couple of months. We had a senior journalist who
had been critical of the establishment, who was mysteriously killed. Assassin was killed by gunshot in Kenya. We had the director general of the intelligence services, Pakistan’s eyes and doesn’t even like to be photographed making a press conference appearance. And for the first time, Pakistan’s history countering Imran Khan’s narrative a military coup against the current government. There has been a complete battle and it’s been an embattled situation with Imran Khan calling for early elections, he said. And I spoke to him just last month in a briefing and I asked him that look, for example, in me,
Imran Khan’s rallies, which gathered thousands of his supporters. There was a clash in May when many of his supporters were tear gas and had to stop their protest against the current government. Imran Khan has said that he wants the elections, but also said that he feared for his life. So going back to what you just asked about his security, the prime minister has released a statement saying that, you know, he condemns the attack and there will be a probe into this. But Imran Khan had already said in the days and weeks leading up to this
exact long march towards the capital that he did fear for his life. Julia.
