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Imran Khan today said he was hit by four bullets in an assassination bid in Pakistan Punjab’s Wazirabad town on Thursday. \u201cI got to know the day before the attack that either in Wazirabad or in Gujrat, they planned to kill me,\u201d the former prime minister\u00a0claimed in a video address, his first since the attack, from a Lahore hospital.<\/p>\n
Wazirabad and Gujrat are towns that fall on the route of his Lahore-to-Islamabad march against the army establishment-backed federal government.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I was hit by four bullets,” said the former cricket captain, dressed in a blue hospital gown, a drip attached to his arm and a cast on his leg, with the national flag in the background.<\/p>\n
He is \u201cout of danger\u201d and has undergone surgery, while one of his supporters died in the attack<\/a> and at least 13 others, including party leaders,\u00a0were injured in the firing on Thursday.<\/p>\n The arrested attacker has told the police on camera that he was acting on his own \u2014 \u201cI was upset as he’s misleading people and weaning them away from Islam’s tenets\u201d \u2014 but Mr Khan has blamed three men specifically: PM Shehbaz Sharif, internal security minister Rana Sanaullah and Major General Faisal Naseer, who leads the intelligence agency ISI.<\/p>\n The government has denied any role and promised a fair probe.<\/p>\n The attack brought back chilling memories of how another former PM, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated during a rally in 2007. Her killing remains shrouded in mystery as she was campaigning ahead of an election.<\/p>\n Imran Khan has been demanding snap polls ever since his\u00a0government fell seven months ago after losing the defence establishment’s confidence. He has since been\u00a0campaigning against the army<\/a>\u00a0and intelligence agency ISI’s “interference” that “has undermined democracy by installing a puppet government”.<\/p>\n Once considered a “selection” by the army, the 70-year-old \u2014 known for his wily moves on the field as a World Cup-winning cricket star \u2014\u00a0he served about four years a PM until last April.\u00a0<\/p>\n He has been marching since October last week to demand resignation of the new government formed by his two main opponents that are each other’s rivals otherwise,\u00a0the Sharifs’ Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and the Bhuttos’ Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n