On 15 August 2014, Imran Khan, then in opposition, survived an assassination attempt after a gun was fired at him during a rally in Gujranwala. Khan was leading a march to Islamabad to force the resignation of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was embroiled in several corruption cases. Khan’s convoy was attacked by Sharif’s supporters, forcing everyone to be freed. The cricketer-turned-politician, however, narrowly escaped. By November 3, and Khan had survived another assassination attempt, this time barely 30 kilometers from Gujranwala. Khan was shot in the leg when he was leading a rally against the military-government alliance in Waziristan. The PTI leader had first warned of an attempt on his life in March, days before he was ousted from the post of PM. Khan then claimed to have an American hand in the conspiracy.
Since then, there have been many red flags! In the last week of March, PTI leader Faisal Vavda had claimed that Khan’s refusal to “sell the country” was a conspiracy to kill him.
On 1 April, Fawad Chaudhry, the then Information Minister and close to Khan, had said that security agencies had also reported a conspiracy to murder.
سیکرٹری نرل اکستان ریک انصاف اسد مر اور میاں اسلم اقبال ا مران ان ر دلان ملے سحوال
on#عمران_خان_ہماری_ریڈ_لاین_ہے pic.twitter.com/AMbSJiZFO2— PTI (@PTIofficial) 3 November 2022
On 14 May, Khan reiterated that there was a conspiracy to kill him. Two days later, the Pakistan government increased his security. On June 18, PTI leader Fayaz Chauhan claimed that a terrorist was hired to eliminate Khan. He tweeted, “I have information that some people have ordered terrorist named ‘Kochi’ in Afghanistan to kill Imran Khan.”
Just days before Khan began his much-hyped ‘Long March’, Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam left for London on October 5, apparently at the insistence of her father. Several reports quoted PML(N) sources as saying that Nawaz was worried that the ‘Long March’ could turn ‘chaotic’ and even bring Khan back to power.
On 8 October, Khan alleged that four persons were plotting to kill him on charges of blasphemy. Addressing a rally in Mianwali in Punjab province, the PTI chief said the PML-N leaders were trying to incite religious hatred against him.
The next day, his helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing near Rawalpindi. Khan was returning from Dera Ismail Khan to Islamabad when his chopper reportedly developed a ‘technical fault’. In the course of the attempted assassination on 3 November, current Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah made several threatening statements against Khan, for which he is now the target.