The man who allegedly shot at and injured Imran Khan Thursday evening has claimed he wanted to kill the ex Pakistan prime minister because he is misleading people. In a video statement circulated online - which Hindustan Times has not been able to independently verify - the alleged shooter also said he wanted to kill only Khan and had acted on his own.
"Sirf Imran Khan ko maarna tha (I came only to kill Imran Khan)... I did this because he is misleading people. I couldn't accept it..." the (as yet unidentified) man said, adding that he had driven up the site of the rally on a motorcycle that he left at a family member's home.
It is unclear who recorded the video and who released it online.
Also read | Assassination bid, says Pakistan’s PTI on firing that wounded ex-PM Imran Khan
The former cricketer kicked off a protest march from Lahore to Islamabad last week to demand prime minister Shehbaz Sharif call snap polls. Khan was ousted as PM in April after losing a no-confidence vote that (he claims) was engineered by Sharif and the United States.
{{/usCountry}}The former cricketer kicked off a protest march from Lahore to Islamabad last week to demand prime minister Shehbaz Sharif call snap polls. Khan was ousted as PM in April after losing a no-confidence vote that (he claims) was engineered by Sharif and the United States.
{{/usCountry}}Both the PM and the United States have denied the claims.
Imran Khan was shot in his leg and rushed to hospital, and is now in stable condition.
"There was a guy who was in front of the container who had this automatic pistol. He fired a burst. Everyone who was standing in the very front row got hit," ex minister Fawad Chaudhry, a senior leader of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, told news agency AFP.
Chaudhry was standing behing Khan at the time. Some reports suggest there were two shooters; the other had an automatic rifle and is believed to have been shot dead.