Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan vows to continue protest march after assassination bid

Former Pakistan premier Imran Khan, who survived an assassination attempt on his life on Thursday, is stable and determined to continue his political march to press the government to call for an early election, his party said on Friday.

Khan, 70, was hit by a bullet injury in the right leg after a gun-wielding man aimed a volley of bullets at him and others while they were standing on a container-mounted truck in the Wazirabad area of Punjab province during the so-called "long march".

“I will not bow down, but stay determined to bring Haq­eeqi Azadi (real freedom) for my fellow Pakistanis,” the party's official Twitter handle quoted Khan as saying, adding that the march would resume from Wazirabad at 11 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) on Friday.

Khan's political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, announced a nationwide protest organized on Friday amid heightened tensions in the South Asian country after the assassination attempt on the populist cricketer-turned-politician. 

"Today, after Friday prayers, there will be protests across the country, which will continue until Imran Khan's demand is met," Asad Umar, a close Khan aide, said on Twitter.

The former international cricket star has been leading the convoy of thousands since last week, which began from Lahore on October 28 and aimed to reach the capital Islamabad on November 4 to hold a rally for forcing the government to announce fresh elections.

Fawad Chaudhry, a senior leader from Khan's party, said it was “a planned assassination attempt on Imran Khan and he escaped narrowly.”

"The assassin planned to kill Imran Khan and the leadership of the PTI. It was not 9MM, it was a burst from an automatic weapon. No two opinions that it was a narrow escape,” he tweeted on Thursday.

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan wounded in ‘assassination attempt’

The incident occurred in Punjab province’s Wazirabad.

The unidentified assassin not only fired an array of bullets at Khan but the incident also took the life of a man and injured 10 others.

Khan’s supporters gathered at the site where the incident occurred and urged him to carry on with his march in Islamabad.

"The march must go ahead. It cannot stop. People are very angry, it will become more intense," Ansar Bashir, 40, a Khan supporter who was close to the incident, told Reuters while holding a flag of Khan's party.

In a confession video, the attacker said that he was angry with the procession for making a racket during the call to prayer that summons Muslims to the mosque five times a day.

"I did it because (Khan) was misleading the public," he said in the video, shown with his hands tied behind his back in what appears to be a police station.

Khan demanded police investigate Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and intelligence official Major-General Faisal, alleging they were behind the attack, according to Punjab government spokesperson and PTI leader Mussarat Jamshed Cheema.

Both Sharif and Sanaullah have condemned the attack and Sharif has called for a probe into the incident.

The attack on Khan is reminiscent of a similar incident that still haunts the country when another former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was attacked in 2007 when a huge bomb detonated near her vehicle as she greeted supporters in the city of Rawalpindi, but was not lucky enough as Khan and died on spot.

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