LAHORE: Former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan has accused the PML-N-led government of hatching his failed assassination plot — similar to the murder plot of slain former Punjab governor Salman Taseer — to put blame of his murder on religious fanatics.
The former premier claimed that two plans were made to assassinate him. “After failure of the first plan, plan B was made under which Salman Taseer type murder plot was hatched so that they could put a blame of my murder on reli-gious fanatics”.
Imran said on August 24, journalist Waqqat Satti posted a doctored video in which he was accused of committing a blasphemy.
Similarly, he said PML-N leaders Javed Latif, Maryam Nawaz, Rana Sanaullah and Khawaja Asif addressed press con-ferences and accused him of hurting religious sentiments of the masses.
The former prime minister was wounded by gunfire on November 3 last year as he led a convoy through thick crowds on top of his open-top con-tainer truck in Wazirabad. One person died while several members of the PTI chairman’s close circle were injured in the incident.
The alleged shooter, Naveed Bashir, was detained shortly after. He had claimed in his confessional video statement that he shot the PTI chief as he was “misleading” the nation, which he could not tolerate.
The video was leaked to the media shortly after the incident, which critics claimed was an attempt to lead people to a premeditated conclusion regard-ing the attacker’s motive. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf says a well-thought-out narrative was chalked out to give the assassination attempt the cover of religiously-motivated crime.
Besides PML-N, Imran in yesterday’s presser lamented that those who were responsible for the country’s security were also involved in the assas-sination plot.
Imran said his failed assassination plot could not be hatched without the support of “those people whom we consider as the saviours of the country”.
“Countries break up when establishment turns against the country’s largest political party… for whom you [establish-ment] want to eliminate the leader of Pakistan’s largest political party?”
Imran said only enemy could think of damaging the country’s most popular party. “Only two or three people are in-volved in my failed assassination plot.” Speaking about investigation into the Wazirabad attack, Imran said there were three shooters who used different weapons in the attack.
Imran Khan said the confessional video of alleged shooter Naveed Bashir was shared by “those journalists and chan-nels who are against PTI” to spread propaganda.
“I could not file an FIR of firing on me while in Punjab, where our party is in power… the subordinate police officer (DPO Gujranwala) did not ap-pear in the court,” he added.
Concluding his address, Imran appealed the Supreme Court to ensure justice in the Wazirabad attack and hold power-ful people accountable. –Agencies
