Tag: assassination attempt

  • Trump appears at convention with bandaged ear after shooting

    Trump appears at convention with bandaged ear after shooting

    Donald Trump received a hero’s welcome Monday as he entered the Republican National Convention arena with a bandaged right ear in his first public appearance since being wounded in a weekend assassination attempt.

    Hours after winning the formal nomination to be the Republican presidential candidate and announcing right-wing Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, Trump marched into Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum flanked by aides and waved at supporters on the opening day of what is expected to be a triumphalist gathering.

    Trump, who is due to give a formal acceptance speech on Thursday, took his seat to the sound of country singer Lee Greenwood’s patriotic hit “God Bless the USA” without delivering any remarks but appeared markedly moved by the rapt ovation he received from a packed venue.

    “It was absolutely amazing. I mean, just thinking what he’s been through, and to come here today because he really cares,” Illinois delegate Susan Sweeney told AFP on the convention floor.

    It was the second huge moment of the day for the Republican crowd, which erupted into cheers earlier as Trump announced Vance, just 39, as his vice presidential pick, rewarding a one-time harsh critic who has become one of his most uncompromising supporters.

    While Trump, 78, is increasingly confident of a shock return to the White House — despite multiple legal problems and two impeachments clouding his first term — President Joe Biden.

    The standard-bearer for a new kind of populism that has come to the fore under Trump, Vance is also one of the least experienced VP picks in modern history.

    But he embraces the ex-president’s isolationist, anti-immigration America First movement and is even further to the right than his new boss on some issues — including abortion, where he embraces calls for federal legislation.

    Strong polling

    He initially made his name with the 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” a best-selling account of his Appalachian family and modest Rust Belt upbringing that gave a voice to rural, working-class resentment in left-behind America.

    Turning his back on previous Republican opposition to Trump, whom he once said might be “America’s Hitler,” Vance reinvented himself and ultimately won the ex-president’s endorsement in the 2022 Ohio Senate race, launching his meteoric rise.

    Some 50,000 Republicans descended on the shores of Lake Michigan for the four-day convention, four months before election day.

    The gathering comes with the country reeling from a botched attempt by a gunman to kill Trump at a rally in Butler, western Pennsylvania on Saturday.

    The attack — which killed one bystander and left Trump with the bloodied ear that required the bandage — was expected to dominate proceedings.

    Leading in multiple polls, despite being convicted in his hush-money criminal case in New York, Trump is exuding confidence.

    At 81, Biden meanwhile is facing calls from his own side to quit the race over concerns around his age.

    His campaign released a statement saying the Trump-Vance agenda would “take away Americans’ rights, hurt the middle class, and make life more expensive — all while benefiting the ultra-rich and greedy corporations.”

    Message of unity

    Trump told the New York Post he had “prepared an extremely tough speech” about Biden’s “horrible administration” to deliver at the convention.

    As some Republicans — including Vance — sought to blame Democrats’ anti-Trump rhetoric for the attack, Trump said he had torn up that version in favor of one he hopes will “unite our country.”

    Still, that means him having to rein in the instinct to settle scores — demonstrated by his cry for supporters to “fight” in the seconds after Saturday’s attack.

    A diminished figure after his 2020 election loss and a subsequent riot at the Capitol by his supporters, Trump has spent much of the last four years reshaping Republican politics.

    Installing loyalists, including his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, atop the Republican National Committee, the billionaire has effectively crushed dissent within the party.

    He scored another victory Monday as a judge dismissed one of the criminal cases against him concerning accusations he endangered national security by holding on to top secret documents after leaving the White House.

  • Benazir Bhutto left us 16 years ago today

    Benazir Bhutto left us 16 years ago today

    It has been 16 years since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a brutal suicide attack on December 27, 2007.

    Bhutto, daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was born in Karachi in 1953. Her political career started after the judicial murder of her father. Benazir formally stepped into practical politics by establishing the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD). In consequence, she was held in the jail in solitary confinement.

    Post Zia-ul-Haq’s death, Bhutto came back from exile, campaigned for the elections, and became the first female Prime Minister of the Muslim world on December 2, 1988. At 35, she was also the youngest elected Prime Minister in the world. She became Premier for the second time in 1993 and remained in exile during the military regime of Parvez Musharraf.

    In her book “Reconciliation” she wrote, “I suffered the punishment of my father’s arrest, imprisonment, and murder, and I knew that such wounds of the soul never heal. I was ready to do anything to spare my children from the pain I endured at my father’s death. However, this was the only thing I could not do.”

    Upon her arrival back in Pakistan in October 2007, she survived a suicide attack that took the lives of hundreds of supporters but Bibi remained unfazed and went on with her campaign. In every meeting, she used to declare, “I have risked my life for democracy in Pakistan.”

    She became the first high-profile victim of terrorism. The plague of terrorism is rampant again and the controversy around her death stands out as one of the leading factors behind the deficit of trust between the masses and the leaders.

    “With the country facing what is perhaps the most difficult and testing time in its history, the loss of Benazir Bhutto is felt more than ever. The long shadow of despotism is hanging over the country yet again…She had the intellectual capacity to engage with even her strongest critics, a quality rarely found in our political leaders. Her loss is more than that of a political leader. She came to symbolise the unity of an uneasy federation. Her death exacerbated political divisions and polarisation,” senior journalist and author Zahid Hussain sheds light on the contribution of the iconic leader.

  • ‘They had planned to kill me in a Murtaza Bhutto-type murder’: Khan

    ‘They had planned to kill me in a Murtaza Bhutto-type murder’: Khan

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on has claimed on Wednesday that another assassination plot was being hatched to kill him the way Murtaza Bhutto was.

    Recalling his arrival at the Judicial Complex Islamabad, Khan said, “I stood outside the judicial complex’s gate for 40 minutes,” adding that he witnessed the rowdiness of “police, army and unknown people wearing CTD uniform” during this time.

    “They had the planned to take my vehicle inside the complex, close the gates, create a violent situation, and kill me in a Murtaza Bhutto-type murder,” Khan said, adding that he returned from the gate after signing the attendance register.

    Mir Murtaza Bhutto, the son and brother of former Prime Ministers Zulkfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a police encounter in 1996 in Karachi.

    Khan also revealed that he believed the police chiefs of Punjab and Islamabad alongside their ‘handlers’ have hatched a conspiracy to kill him as they are “becoming serious about assassinating him”.

    The IGs of Punjab and Islamabad have constituted two separate squads, Khan alleged, who will join PTI workers and open fire on the police, “to provoke an armed retaliation and eventually reach [inside the house] and assassinate me, in a day or two.”

    Giving instructions to his loyalists, Khan said that they were not to provoke the police at any cost. “If the police want to approach me with any warrant or for any other matter, let them approach me directly,” adding that he would never wish any harm on his party workers. “The incumbent government and its plans to kill me have failed and now they have become jittery and taking extreme measures,” he commented.

  • Sheikh Rasheed booked in another case for speaking against Bilawal

    Sheikh Rasheed booked in another case for speaking against Bilawal

    Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief and Former Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed has been booked in another case in Karachi for allegedly using inappropriate language against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

    On Thursday, Rasheed was handed over on a two-day physical remand for accusing former President Asif Ali Zardari of plotting an assassination attempt on Imran Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

    In the early hours of February 2, Rasheed was arrested from his home in Islamabad.

    Islamabad court grants 2-day physical remand of Sheikh Rasheed

    An Islamabad court on Thursday granted police two-day physical remand of Ahmed, hours after the politicians was arrested in connection with remarks he made against Zardari.

    ‘My crime is that I’m standing with Khan’: Rasheed arrested for levelling allegations against Zardari

    Rasheed was arrested late last night after Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Rawalpindi Division President Raja Inayat Ur Rehman filed a case against him in Islamabad’s Aabpara Police Station for alleging that Zardari was hatching a plot to assassinate the Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan.

    The FIR said that Rasheed’s allegations were designed to get PTI and the PPP to fight each other, disrupting the country’s peace.

    Three sections — 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) — have been added to the FIR.

    Talking to the media after his arrest, Rasheed said he feared for his life.

    “My crime is that I’m standing with Imran Khan,” he said at the Polyclinic hospital in Islamabad, where he was taken for a medical checkup.

    “I have been a minister 16 times. Never for a single time, I have been charged with corruption in these ministries,” he added.

    Rasheed alleged that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah is behind his arrest.

    Former Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the arrest of his close aide and blamed the interim Punjab government — Moshin Naqvi — of being biased.

    “Question is can Pak afford a street movement which we are being pushed towards at a time when Imported Govt has bankrupted us?” he asked.

    Khan in January alleged that Zardari was hatching as well as financing a plot to assassinate him, for which the ex-president had hired “terrorists”.

    “…there’s a Plan C. Asif Zardari is behind it. He has amassed a lot of money through corruption and he has invested that money in terrorists and hired a militant organisation,” the PTI chief had alleged. However, the PPP strongly denied the claim and served a legal notice to Khan.

  • ‘He cannot make accusations every time his wife has a dream’: Bilawal roars at Khan for accusations on his father

    ‘He cannot make accusations every time his wife has a dream’: Bilawal roars at Khan for accusations on his father

    Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari took Imran Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), to task for the allegations he made against Asif Ali Zardari.

    Tweeting from his official account, the foreign minister minced no words while responding to Imran Khan’s statement that former President Asif Ali Zardari was plotting to assassinate him.

    Bilawal wrote that after terrorist outfits called him and his party out by name in direct threats, Imran Khan has now made false accusations against his father.

    “These statements increase threats to my father, my family and my party. We take them seriously given our history,” tweeted Bilawal, whose mother, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a terrorist attack in 2007.

    “We are exploring legal responses to Imran latest defamatory and dangerous accusations. In the past he threatened my father that he was ‘in the crosshairs of his gun’. His and his associates history as both sympathisers and facilitators of terrorists are well documented”, said Bilawal.

    “Imran must realize every time his wife has a dream he cannot just come on tv and make accusations about people. Her dreams won’t stand up in court,” said Bilawal taking a jibe at the former First Lady, Bushra Bibi.

    “His latest accusation that my family has any association to a terrorist organization or that we would employ them to cause him harm not only defies logic but exposes us all to an increased threat.”

    Stating that PPP will challenge Imran, Bilawal said that populist fiction cannot be allowed to dominate our discourse, poison our politics and damage our democracy. “We will not tolerate being victims of terrorist and put up with propaganda from their political front men.”

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif tweeted, “Imran Niazi’s baseless & dangerous allegations against former President Asif Ali Zardari are not only irresponsible but also conform to a pattern of conspiracy theories meant to spread venom against his political opponents.”

    “Such nonsensical rhetoric is an attempt to remain politically relevant. The whole nation knows how he has used politics of hatred to divide the society for the sake of power.”

    Adviser to the Prime Minister, Qamar Zaman Kaira, also responded to Imran Khan’s accusations, stating that PPP will not let Imran Khan off the hook for alleging that former Asif Ali Zardari plotted to kill him.

    Imran Khan had alleged on Friday in a televised speech that PPP Co-Chairman Zardari was plotting and financing an assassination attempt for which the ex-president had hired terrorists.

    Kaira, a PPP stalwart, rejected the allegations as “atrocious”. He said that the allegations had gone beyond lies, promising that PPP won’t spare Imran Khan.

    “A former prime minister talks about his alleged assassination plan. The court should order an investigation. If his allegations are genuine, then those responsible should be brought to the book. If the allegations are proven untrue, Imran should be punished,” said Kaira while speaking on Geo News programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada kay Sath.

    PPP leader Kasim Gillani also spoke up tweeting, “The absolutely vile, slanderous and defamatory allegations by Imran Khan against President Asif Zardari will be responded to robustly and legally.”

    Khan had claimed that four people orchestrated a plan “behind closed doors” to assassinate him.

    “I got to know about it and then I recorded a video explaining the attack. In a public rally, I announced that I would release the video if something happened to me. They stepped back after this,” said Khan.

    Without naming anyone again, Khan said that another plan was made to have me killed by a religious extremist — hinting towards the November 3, 2022, Wazirabad attack, where he was shot in the legs and is still recovering from the injuries.

    “Now, there’s a Plan C. Asif Zardari is behind it. He has amassed a lot of money through corruption, invested that money with terrorists and hired a militant organisation.”

  • ‘Woh kaun tha’: Khan claims one man did not let him register FIR after assassination attempt

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday reiterated that despite his party governing Punjab, he couldn’t register a First Information Report (FIR) and record the statements of the people he named in the attempt on his life.

    Addressing his supporters, the PTI chief said that an investigation should have been held when he named the people who were involved in his attempted assassination in Wazirabad in early November.

    He also questioned who was the powerful person who stopped the investigation and who was afraid of it. Dismissing the FIR which was later registered, he termed it “scripted” as it named only one shooter.

    During the address, Khan repeatedly said that there were more than one shooter at the scene and backed the recent Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report.

    Accusing four unnamed individuals for plotting his murder, which he said was not the first attempt at murdering him, Imran said that a narrative of a religious fanatic was created to misdirect investigations.

    “If these four people would have killed me they would be exposed, that is why they tried to kill me by planting a religious fanatic,” he said.

    “People from inside the agencies had already informed me about the plot to assassinate me,” he claimed.

    Backing the findings contained in the JIT report, he said one of the gunmen was the man who had been repressed near the attack site by onlookers. Another one had fired from the roof with police recovering empty bullet casings from the nearby rooftop. The third was somewhere else. But he defended his security guard, noting that he acted heroically to protect them.

    Khan also claimed that Naveed (the man who shot at Khan and was immediately arrested) was trained to do this and confess in this manner. He said that people had already posted Naveed’s confession of firing at Khan even before he reached the hospital.

    The former prime minister also requested the formation of a powerful committee, under Chief Justice (CJ) Umar Ata Bandial’s supervision to probe the assassination bid.

  • Imran Khan alleges that Gen Bajwa planned to murder him: report

    Imran Khan alleges that Gen Bajwa planned to murder him: report

    Former Prime Minister and Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has alleged that ex- army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa had planned to have him murdered and impose a state of emergency in the country, reports Dawn, referring to an interaction Khan had with Bol News team in Lahore.

    According to the news report, Bol News Lahore bureau chief Syed Khawar Abbas said that he would make “more revelations” during his press conference on Thursday (today) regarding the attempt on his life in Wazirabad, November 3, last year.

    The PTI chairman further said he could not cover up “the crimes that Gen Bajwa had committed” and added that he was being told by many to stop levelling allegations against the former army chief as he has retired.

    Earlier, Khan, claimed that Gen Bajwa was very close to current Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif.

    “There was information that General Bajwa was in contact with Shehbaz Sharif and Nawaz Sharif. The plan was to bring Shehbaz Sharif [into power] and remove me,” said Khan in an interview with GNN.

    General Bajwa retired as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) in November, last year, handing over the command of the country’s military to General Asim Munir.

    Since his retirement, Bajwa has been the target of criticism by Imran Khan, who has levelled serious allegations against the former COAS. General Bajwa has yet to respond to the allegations officially.

  • Imran Khan can now travel after plaster is removed from his leg

    Imran Khan can now travel after plaster is removed from his leg

    Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, has been given the green signal to travel by his medical team ahead of the Rawalpindi rally scheduled for November 26.

    Khan’s physician, Dr Khalid Niazi, has said that the plaster on Khan’s fractured leg has been removed while the wounds on the upper part of Khan’s lower right limb have almost healed. However, the wounds on the lower part of the leg will take another week to heal completely.

    He added that Khan can now wash his leg and put weight on it as well. The doctors also allowed Khan to travel but with the caveat that he needs to be careful.

    The doctors told the media that they have removed one leg band from the former premier’s injured leg while leaving the other one loose.

    In an address, Imran Khan said he would go to Rawalpindi on November 26 and reveal a new plan for his Haqeeqi Long March movement.

    On November 3, Imran Khan survived an assassination attempt on day seven of PTI’s ‘Haqeeqi Long March’ as his container moved through Punjab’s Wazirabad.

  • Intelligence reports that Imran may be attacked again, IHC says

    Intelligence reports that Imran may be attacked again, IHC says

    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday said that intelligence reports have identified that there may be danger of another attack on Imran Khan, former Prime Minister and Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

    Chief Justice of IHC, Aamer Farooq, passed the remarks during the hearing of two merged petitions — PTI’s plea seeking a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for a protest sit-in in Islamabad and traders’ petition for ensuring the citizens’ rights to access the roads during the prolonged political demonstrations, reports Geo News.

    During the hearing, the police presented a report before the court, stating that there is a possibility of another bid on Imran Khan’s life during the protest.

    To this, the Chief Justice remarked that it is the government’s responsibility to address the issue.

    About the protest in Islamabad, Justice Farooq said the administration should take a decision on PTI’s request in accordance with the law and ensure that roads are not blocked. He also added that the government will decide on the venue for the PTI and where they can protest in Islamabad.

    During the hearing, the chief justice also noted the blockage of roads caused by PTI, stating, “You [PTI] blocked the GT Road, the motorway, and other important highways. You should also have shown some responsibility.”

    Earlier this month, the PTI chief survived an assassination attempt in Wazirabad during his party’s long march. Khan sustained multiple bullet injuries in his legs.

  • Head of team investigating attack on Imran Khan changed once again

    Head of team investigating attack on Imran Khan changed once again

    The Punjab government has again reconstituted the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which was formed to investigate the November 3rd assassination attempt on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.

    The team’s head has also been changed after the government appointed Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Ghulam Mehmood Dogar as its head. This is the third time that the JIT has been reconstituted, while its head has been changed for the second time.

    On Tuesday, Dogar paid a visit to Khan’s residence in Lahore. According to media reports, the CCPO Lahore was appointed on Imran Khan’s suggestion.

    Punjab government has issued a notification in this regard informing the appointment of Regional Police Officer (RPO) Dera Ghazi Khan Syed Khurram as a member of the JIT, along with Assistant Inspector General of the province’s investigation branch, Ehsanullah Chauhan.

    On November 9, a committee of the Punjab cabinet decided to establish a JIT to probe the attack.

    Mohammad Naveed, the suspect arrested by police right after the firing incident, has confessed to the crime. However, his insistence that he was operating alone has not been accepted by Imran Khan and his party.