Imran was attacked by three shooters: Fawad Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry Wednesday claimed that the attempted assassination on his party Chairman Imran Khan was carried out by three attackers, all of whom struck him from three different sides.

“An attempt to kill Imran Khan was made in the assassination attack. Investigations proved three attackers were involved in the attempted assassination attack on Khan,” the PTI leader said while addressing a press conference in Lahore.

A day earlier, a forensic report revealed that Imran Khan had been hit by three pieces of bullets and a metal shard when he was standing on a moving container near the Allahwala Chowk in Gujranwala’s Wazirabad city. The former premier was injured in an assassination attack on November 3, 2022.

Almost 10 bullet shells were found on the spot, which were sent for forensic examination, the report stated, while no sniper was hired and bullets were not discharged from three sides. It added that almost 33 pieces of evidence were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory. In the same month, the former ruling party moved five registries of the Supreme Court in different cities across the country, seeking the formation of a judicial commission to probe the assassination attack on the PTI chief.

The former prime minister, Fawad said, was attacked from three different sides and the same number of weapons were used in the attack. “No shot was fired by Imran Khan’s guards.”

He also alleged that the attack on Imran Khan was premeditated with the intention to kill him and instigate hatred. “Imran Khan spoke openly about the attacks on himself in two [PTI] gatherings,” he said, reminding about the assassination of ex-prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan on October 16, 1951. Commenting on the injuries sustained by Khan and the amount of bullets fired at the attack site, Fawad said: “Imran Khan received eight wounds and among those are bullet wounds. Fourteen bullets were found on the ground, 12 from one place, and two from another, while nine bullets were found from a building opposite [the attack site] of which seven were at one place and two at another.”

The former information minister said only one attacker has so far been arrested, while the search for the other two continues. A shooter, he said, was sent to kill the accused Naveed, the prime suspect of the attack, who was caught by a PTI supporter as he tried to flee the attack site. He claimed that Moazzam, a participant in PTI rally who was killed in the crossfire, was shot by the bullet meant to murder Naveed.

“Moazzam was killed by the bullet of the shooter who was sent to kill Naveed,” he claimed in the presser.

An intelligence agency (not the ISI) report, from November 2022, submitted to the federal government regarding the attack on Khan did not find any conspiracy involved, terming it a lone-wolf attack.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Gujranwala, on November 29 last year, granted police a 13-day remand of the alleged attacker Naveed, who was presented before the court upon the expiry of his 12-day remand — which the court had granted to the police on November 17. The PTI leader, speaking about the investigations in the case, also said that the District Police Officer gave a camera to the Station House Officer (SHO) asking him to film a video.

“The DPO was asked to join the investigation but he did not join. Who is stopping the DPO from joining the probe?” Fawad said, raising questions on the investigations in the case.

He alleged that the purpose of renovating the office is to conceal its link to the video. “The police did not cooperate when they began inquiry of the video leaks,” he added.