By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Punjab police booked lone shooter Naveed Mohammad Basheer as the prime accused in a failed assassination attempt on former prime minister Imran Khan, ignoring the names of the three top officials who Khan had accused of hatching a plot to assassinate him.
Khan termed the First Information Report in the case filed by the police as ‘farcical’ and said he would give his position through his lawyers.
Khan suffered multiple bullet injuries in both his legs when a gun-wielding man opened fire on the protest convoy last Thursday near Gujranwala, wounding at least seven people and killing a party supporter.
He accused PM Sharif, Interior minister Rana Sanaullah and an army official Major-General Faisal Nasser of the assassination plot — and demanded their resignations.
Earlier Police had nabbed Basheer from the crime scene. A leaked confessional video shows Basheer confessing to attacking Khan because he was ‘misleading the public.
Khan said, “his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) lawyers will give his position on the issue of the ‘farcical FIR’.”
“All my life I dreamt of seeing my country as a prospering welfare state & my struggle throughout has been to make this dream a reality for my nation. Today the nation has awakened, understood & risen in support of my message of justice, freedom & national sovereignty,” Khan said on Twitter. “When we are so close to our goal no fear or threat of death can stop my struggle. Our peaceful protests & dialogue are only for Pakistan’s Haqeeqi Azadi.”
The FIR was filed following orders from the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The court questioned the top official in the Punjab police on Monday and issued a warning to register an FIR within 24 hours. The police report was filed under anti-terror laws.
PTI leaders rejected the FIR and called it a “mockery of the law and the top court’s order.”
Senior PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said that if the FIR doesn’t include the three accused nominated by Imran Khan, then it is not more than a piece of paper.
Another PTI leader Shireen Mazari said the FIR is an “attempt at a complete cover-up by the three accused through the power of their positions and the state”.
“The FIR registered in Wazirabad thana is a sheer mockery of the law & SC order. An attempt at a complete cover-up by the 3 accused thru the power of their positions & the State. Seems regime change conspirators hellbent on destroying Pak totally for their own ends,” Shireen Mazari tweeted.
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