Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was in a stable condition on Friday after being shot and wounded during a protest march the day before, a senior leader from his party said.
Khan spoke to reporters late on Friday - his first public remarks since the shooting - and pledged that he will resume his protest once he has recovered from the bullet wound.
The bullet hit him in the right leg, above the ankle.
Khan’s protest march and rallies, which started last Friday, were peaceful until Thursday’s attack in Wazirabad, a district in eastern Punjab province.
Sitting in a wheelchair, his right leg bandaged and elevated on a stool, Khan spoke from the Shaukat Khanum hospital, where he had surgery on Thursday night.
“(The protest) will have to wait until I am little bit more mobile but our protest will continue,” he told reporters.
Khan accused Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan and army Gen. Faisal Naseer working for the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency of orchestrating the shooting.
Khan offered no evidence for his allegations, which were rejected by Sharif’s government and dismissed as a “pack of lies” by Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb.
The spy agency said there was absolutely no truth to Khan’s allegations.
The government says it has ordered a high-level probe.
The shooter, who was arrested at the scene of the attack, was still being questioned Friday, police said.
On Thursday, local police officials released a video showing the man who says in the footage that he carried out the shooting and acted alone.
Khan, a former cricket star-turned-politician, was travelling in a large protest convoy of trucks and cars toward Islamabad when the attack happened.
Video footage from Thursday shows him and his team ducking for cover on top of a vehicle as gunfire rings out.
