The suspect who has confessed to shooting PTI Chairman Imran Khan and other leaders of his party at a protest convoy has said he tried to assassinate the former prime minister because “Khan was misleading the people.”
\nA bullet went through Khan’s shin after being shot at by an apparently lone shooter Thursday when his long march entered Gujranwala. Khan’s party says it was obviously a bid on his life. The attacker has confessed to taking a shot at Khan’s life in the preliminary investigation.
\n\u201cI could not stand it \u2026 and tried to kill Imran Khan. I tried \u2026 I tried my best to kill Khan and only Khan and not anyone else,\u201d said the shooter, who was collared by the police near the shooting scene.
\n\u201cI thought they were violating [the sanctity of] Azaan by playing loud music [on their sound system]. My conscience could not handle it and I took action.\u201d
\nWhen asked whether it was an involuntary action or premeditated, the shooter first said it was a “spontaneous decision” that he took on the spot. He then modified his statement and said no \u201cI decided to do it this morning\u201d. However, in his third version, the gunman said he had planned to shoot Khan since his departure from Lahore. \u201cAnd I will not spare him,\u201d he added.
\nWhen asked who was supporting him, the shooter denied association with anyone.
\n\u201cPraise the Lord, I acted alone. I did not have anyone to back me up for the shooting.”
\nThe gunman is in police custody and being interrogated for further clues.
\nKhan, 70, ousted as prime minister in April, was seven days into a miles-long protest procession, standing and waving to thousands of cheering supporters from the roof of a container truck when the shots rang out.
\nMeanwhile, Ibtisam, the man who pinned down the shooter preventing further damage, said the attacker did not come prepared.
\n\u201cHe shot just once. The pistol was automatic and set on the burst mode so the firing did not stop until the clip was empty.\u201d
\nIbtisam, who shot to a hero’s status, regretted failing to stop the shooter before he pulled the trigger.
\nMinister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb condemned the attack on Khan in Gujranwala, demanding a thorough investigation into the incident.
\n\u201cThe incident is very unfortunate and condemnable. It should not be politicised and speculations must be avoided,\u201d she said while addressing a press conference in the capital.
\nMarriyum said the Punjab Police as well as the administration and other relevant departments should bring forth the facts after investigating the incident which occurred within the jurisdiction of the Punjab government.
\nShe said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had sought a preliminary report on the matter, while Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah was in constant contact with the Inspector-General and Chief Secretary Punjab.
\nThe minister said the federal government would extend all-out cooperation to the Punjab government in this regard.
\n\u201cWe are waiting for the report of the Punjab government over the incident,\u201d she added.
\nShe advised the media to avoid speculation on the incident which was sensitive in nature. “Speculations on such matters might lead to violence,” she added.
\nThe media needed to act in a responsible way and should only publish those facts which were shared by the provincial government and Punjab police, she stressed, adding that verified information would be shared with the media as soon as received.
\nMarriyum also prayed for the early recovery of PTI leader Senator Faisal Javed who was seriously injured in the shooting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The suspect who has confessed to shooting PTI Chairman Imran Khan and other leaders of his party at a protest convoy has said he tried…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2456,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news-updates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}