Imran Khan says doctors took three bullets out of his right leg

Imran Khan on Monday said that three bullets were taken out of his right leg after he was attacked at a political rally last week.

Mr Khan was shot by a gunman who opened fire at a container truck carrying him in Gujranwala in the Wazirabad district in the eastern Punjab province on 4 November. He was travelling in a large convoy of trucks and cars heading towards Islamabad, as part of his campaign aimed at forcing the government to hold early elections.

In an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson, Mr Khan said that the doctors at the Shaukat Khanum hospital in Lahore, to where he was rushed after what his party members called an “assassination attempt”, took out three bullets.

“They took out three bullets from my right leg. The left had some shrapnel which they’ve left inside,” he said. Mr Khan said that his leg was in a cast because his bone had been damaged. He will take four to six weeks to recover and resume normal activities.

The “long march” that was launched on 28 October from Lahore and supposed to end in Islamabad on 11 November was cut short after the attack on Mr Khan. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf [PTI] vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced on Monday that the march will resume on 10 November from the same location in Waziradabad where the attack took place.

Another senior party leader, Faisal Javed Khan, also said that PTI’s protest march will resume on Thursday.

The former Pakistan prime minister claimed that he had knowledge from within intelligence agencies that the shooting would take place. He told CNN: “Remember, three and a half years I was in power. I have connections with intelligence agencies, the different agencies that operate. How did I get the information? From within the intelligence agencies. Why? Because most people are appalled by what is going on in this country.”

Last week, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI] said that it had informed Mr Khan about the “threat”.

One person died during the attack and several others were injured.

In Islamabad on Tuesday, supporters of Mr Khan blocked roads, disrupting traffic and forcing schools to close, as they protested against the attack.

Vice president of Pakistan Muslim League (N), Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, blasted Mr Khan’s supporters who blocked roads in the capital. He said: “One and a half dozen Tehreek-e-Insaf workers have blocked the motorways at various places with the facilitation of the provincial government. People are facing severe difficulties, many ambulances and patients are also getting disturbed on the way.”

He also attacked Mr Khan and accused him of wanting “chaos in the people and sedition in Pakistan”.

The Dawn reported that PTI central vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said as soon as Mr Khan is able to stand and walk, he will join the long march.

Another politician from PTI Wasiq Abbasi, who is also the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker, called the protests “peaceful”. He said: “We are staging a protest at Motorway Chowk [in Islamabad].” And demanded that the “first information report of the attack” on Mr Khan be registered in line with the “merit”.

“We will continue the protest until our demands are met,” he added.

It was also reported that the local police, after a delay of three days, finally registered a case under terrorism charges on Monday around 11.10pm local time. Even though the PTI chief accused prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, interior minister Rana Sanaullah, and senior intelligence officer major general Faisal Naseer of the alleged conspiracy to kill him, the FIR did not mention any of these names, the Daily Star reported.

Pakistan’s Ministry for Information and Broadcasting denied Mr Khan’s allegations against Mr Sharif and Mr Sanaullah at a news conference last week.

A three-member committee that will investigate the attack on Mr Khan has been constituted in Pakistan. According to a notification issued by the Punjab prosecutor general, the committee “will give line of inquiry to the investigating officer/JIT (joint investigation team), provide guidance for collection of proper admissible evidence and conduct the remand of the accused before the anti-terrorism court (ATC)”, the local media reported.