Will give another call for long march once I recover, says Imran Khan in first address after attack

In his first address after the assassination attempt on Thursday, former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said he would give another call for a long march towards Islamabad as soon as he recovers from the bullet injuries.

“I would take to the streets as soon as I am discharged from the hospital, and lead the long march towards Islamabad,” Imran said as he spoke to the media from Shaukat Khanum hospital in Lahore, where he is currently under treatment.

He called on the public to come out in numbers to protest the assassination attempt, stressing that protests will continue until those accused of the assassination bid are sacked.

The PTI chief said he had learned about the looming danger beforehand. "I had already learned that there was a plan in place to kill me somewhere between Wazirabad and Gujrat," he said.

Imran noted that he was shot at from two directions, adding that it was only God's miracle that he survived the attack.

“When I was on the container, I heard bullets fired upon us from one direction, and then shots were fired from another direction. As I went down, several bullets flew over my head,” Imran said, adding: “had these firing incidents been synchronised, there was no chance I could survive".

The former premier stressed that two shooters had tried to assassinate him in the city of Wazirabad the day before.

They killed one person and injured 11 others, he said.

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Imran noted that one suspect, told to be an extremist, had been arrested. "He is not an extremist. There was a plan behind the attempt, and we will uncover it."

Imran hailed two PTI supporters, Ibtisam, and Muzzam, who was killed while trying to capture one of the attackers, saying there could have been worse consequences had they not stopped the attacker on the ground.

Imran then questioned how a fair probe would take place when those accused included a prime minister, an interior minister, and a major general.

The PTI chief called on Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa to ensure a free and fair inquiry into his assassination attempt, as it would restore the nation’s trust in the institution.

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Explaining the turn of events since his ouster, the PTI chief said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and their handlers believed that his chapter would be closed after toppling his government.

However, when the public came out in large numbers to protest my ouster "through a foreign-funded conspiracy", they got scared.

"Since then, the PTI has won 38 out of 39 elections, which proves PTI is the most popular party in the country," he said.

The PTI chief said he had come to know about his assassination plot beforehand through his sources in institutions.

Imran reiterated that he has named four people who planned his assassination behind closed doors in a video message.

"I have recorded a video that includes names of four people who plotted my assassination," he said, adding that the video will be released if something happened to me.

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"Their plan was to kill me between Gujrat and Wazirabad and give it a religious turn," Imran said.

Earlier, Dr Faisal Sultan said Imran was hit with multiple bullets in his right leg. He explained the injury through an x-ray of the leg.

"Had the bullet hit this artery, heavy blood loss could have posed serious danger to Imran Khan's life."