Francis Pike

Who tried to assassinate Imran Khan? And why?

Imran Khan (Photo: Getty)

At the end of August I warned in The Spectator that, in Pakistan politics, ‘death by assassination is always a risk.’ And so yesterday’s attempted assassination of Imran Khan – while shocking – should have come as no surprise.

Perhaps the bigger surprise was that he survived. As Imran himself stated immediately afterwards, ‘Allah has given me another life.’ It seems that he owes his life to a young man wearing a snazzy FILA sports shirt who wrestled with the assassin as he was firing his pistol – though some reports have it that there was a second assassin firing an automatic rifle.

The circumstances of the aftermath of the assassination attempt bear some scrutiny. Within hours of the shooting, the alleged assassin, Faisal Butt, looking somewhat bedraggled, was shoved in front of a camera by the police – an unusual procedure. One assumes that this was done on the orders of a higher authority. Butt made short work of his confession. ‘I got angry with Khan for spreading hatred and misleading people. I only want to kill Khan and no one else.’ In this last wish he failed; according to officials from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice party) one supporter was killed and others injured.

Somewhat suspiciously Butt then quickly covered his tracks by saying ‘Nobody was behind me, nobody is with me.’ His declaration of sole agency sounded scripted. Protestations of abhorrence at the assassination attempt by Imran’s replacement as prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, and a formal condemnation by an equally hostile army, are likely to cut little ice with either Khan or his supporters.

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Written by
Francis Pike
Francis Pike is a historian and author of Hirohito’s War, The Pacific War 1941-1945 and Empires at War: A Short History of Modern Asia Since World War II.

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