WAZIRABAD: Pakistani former prime minister Imran Khan was recovering in hospital on Friday after an assassination attempt that left him with a gunshot wound to the leg.
The attack on his convoy, apparently by a lone gunman, killed one man and wounded at least 10 others, significantly raising the stakes in the political crisis gripping the country since Khan's ousting in April.
Khan "was stable and he was doing fine" at Shaukat Khanum hospital in the eastern city of Lahore, his doctor Faisal Sultan told AFP Friday morning.
The 70-year-old former international cricket star had been leading a campaign convoy of thousands since last week from Lahore to the capital Islamabad when he was attacked.
Khan escaped with at least one bullet wound to his right leg when a gunman sprayed pistol fire at his modified container truck as it slowly drove through a thick crowd in Wazirabad, around 170 kilometres (100 miles) east of Islamabad.
Fawad Chaudhry, a senior leader from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI), alleged 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.
Police had said that one person was killed while seven were injured.
The Dawn newspaper, however, reported on Friday that 14 persons were injured in addition to one killed.
Khan was shifted by road to his own-built Shaukat Khanum medical facility in Lahore where an operation was performed and was stable after it, according to his party. His party said he is stable now.
The party also said that Khan was determined to continue his protest 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 the march would resume from Wazirabad at 11am on Friday.
Khan launched his march on October 28 from Lahore with the aim to reach Islamabad on November 4 to hold a rally for forcing the government to announce fresh elections. But the marchers moved slowly and later changed the arrival to Islamabad, now expected to reach on November 11.
- Threats -
For now, Khan's campaign truck has become a crime scene, cordoned off and guarded by commandos as forensic experts comb the area.
Overnight, thousands of Khan supporters gathered for a peek, many waving party banners.
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said Thursday the attacker had been taken into custody and shared an apparent confession video that was circulating online.
"I did it because (Khan) was misleading the public," says a dishevelled man in the video, shown with his hands tied behind his back in what appears to be a police station.
He adds 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.
Pervaiz Elahi, the Chief Minister of Punjab, said officers who leaked the video would be disciplined.
Pakistan has been grappling with Islamist militancy for decades, and politicians are frequently targeted by assassination attempts.
The attack on Khan had echoes of the 2007 assassination of another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, who died when a huge bomb detonated near her vehicle as she greeted supporters in the city of Rawalpindi while standing up through the roof hatch.
Khan was booted from office in April by a no-confidence vote after defections by some of his coalition partners, but he retains huge support in the South Asian country.
Khan was voted into power in 2018 on an anti-corruption platform by an electorate tired of dynastic politics, but his mishandling of the economy -- and falling out with a military accused of helping his rise -- sealed his fate.
Since then, he has railed against the establishment and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government, which he says was imposed on Pakistan by a "conspiracy" involving the United States.
Khan has repeatedly told supporters he was prepared to die for the country, and aides have long warned of unspecified threats made on his life.
The attack drew international condemnation including from the United States, which had uneasy relations with Khan when he was in power.
"Violence has no place in politics, and we call on all parties to refrain from violence, harassment and intimidation," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
(With inputs from AFP, PTI)