The party of former Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan has called for countrywide protests on Friday after he was wounded in a gun attack at a march he was leading.
Khan was ousted by a vote of no confidence in parliament on April 10.
He was shot twice in the legs on Thursday and has been receiving treatment in the hospital, his doctor Faisal Sultan said.
Khan was leading a protest rally as part of his plan to march on the capital Islamabad to pressure the government to call snap elections when his convoy came under attack.
The populist leader blamed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his interior minister and a senior military officer from the intelligence services for planning his assassination and demanded their removal.
“We start protests today that will continue until demands are met,” Khan’s aide Asad Umer said.
Police arrested a suspect immediately after the attack who later confessed to shooting at Khan in a bid to kill him.
Footage shot during the interrogation suggests the shooter was religiously motivated.
He was angry at Khan’s alleged statements equating his political struggle to that of the Muslim Prophet Mohamed.
Khan came to power after national elections in 2018 that were tainted by allegations of manipulation by the country’s powerful military. (dpa/NAN)
