violence in pakistan
Ex-Pakistan PM in 'stable' condition following protest attack
Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, was shot and wounded in the leg during a Thursday rally, Pakistani officials said.
"Khan was hit in the foot, but his condition is stable," Asad Umar, a senior leader of Khan's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), told a local broadcaster, per The Washington Post. "Five to six other party leaders, who were atop of a truck with Khan, were also injured. One person is in serious condition."
Khan aides and PTI members have described the attack as an assassination attempt, but the alleged attacker, who is in custody, told police he acted alone and "and did not mention a political motivation for the attack," the Post adds.
"I tried to kill him. I really tried to kill him, just and only Imran Khan and no one else," the man said in a video confession. "It was my sudden decision. The man said he shot at Khan because of the loud music that was played during the Muslim call to prayer, "an act considered disrespectful by many conservative Muslims," the Post summarizes.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, "who came to power after Khan lost a parliamentary vote of no confidence in April," CNN writes, decried the attack on Twitter. "Violence should have no place in our country's politics," Sharif said.
Over the last week, Khan had been heading up protest marches calling for new elections in Pakistan. Notably, the country's election commission had recently recommended that "Khan be disqualified from holding political office for five years, a move likely to further inflame political tensions in the country," CNN writes.
Otherwise, political violence is nothing new for Pakistan, Politico notes. In one high-profile instance, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007.