Ousted Pakistan PM Imran Khan stable after what aides call an assassination attempt

Khan, who was ousted in April, was six days into a protest procession bound for Islamabad. He was standing and waving to thousands of cheering supporters from the top of a container truck when the shots rang out. They were in Wazirabad, nearly 200 kilometres from the capital.

Several members in his convoy were wounded in the attack and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said a suspect had been arrested.

"It was a clear assassination attempt. Khan was hit but he's stable. There was a lot of bleeding," Fawad Chaudhry, a spokesperson for Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told Reuters.

"If the shooter had not been stopped by people there, the entire PTI leadership would have been wiped out."

Khan is out of danger, said physician Dr Faisal Sultan, who oversees the Lahore hospital where Khan is being treated. He told journalists that initial scans and X-rays showed bullet fragments in Khan's leg.

Police have yet to comment on the attack, which drew condemnation from the White House.

In a video statement, Asad Umar, one of Khan's top aides, said the former PM believes that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and intelligence official Maj-General Faisal Naseer were behind the attack. Umar did not provide any evidence to back the allegation.

Sanaullah, speaking to journalists alongside Aurangzeb, rejected the allegations and said the Sharif-led coalition government demanded an independent high-powered investigation. Sharif also condemned the shooting and ordered an immediate investigation.

The military’s media wing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation against Naseer.

In a previous statement, the military called the shooting "highly condemnable". Khan, 70, who was once a cricket star, had accused the military of backing plans to oust him from power. Last week, the military held a news conference to deny the claims.

Pervaiz Elahi, the chief minister of Punjab, the province in which Khan's party is in power and where the shooting occurred, said he was forming a joint investigation team. Elahi said it initially appeared that there were two assailants.

"I heard a burst of shots after which I saw Imran Khan and his aides fall down on the truck," witness Qazzafi Butt told Reuters.

"Later, a gunman shot a single shot but was grabbed by an activist of Khan's party."

In purported footage of the shooting, being run by multiple channels but unverified by Reuters, a man with a handgun is grabbed from behind by one of the people at the gathering. He then tries to flee.

TV channels showed a suspected shooter, who looked to be in his twenties or thirties. He said he wanted to kill Khan and had acted alone.

"He [Khan] was misleading the people, and I couldn't bear it," the suspect said in the video. The information minister confirmed the footage was recorded by police.

No one has been charged with the attack yet.

Khan, who after his removal from office was convicted by Pakistan's election commission for allegedly selling state gifts unlawfully, charges that he denied, had been whipping up large crowds on his way to Islamabad in a campaign to topple Sharif's government.

One member of Khan's party said there were reports one person had been killed in the attack.