WAZIRABAD, Pakistan (AFP) — Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was recovering in hospital Friday after a gunman shot him in the leg, with his supporters vowing the assassination attempt will not derail his "long march" bid to return to power.
The attack on his convoy, apparently by a lone gunman, killed one man and wounded at least 10, significantly raising the stakes in a political crisis that has gripped the South Asian nation since Khan's ousting in April.
Khan "was stable and he was doing fine" at Shaukat Khanum hospital in the eastern city of Lahore, his doctor Faisal Sultan told AFP Friday.
Seemi Bokhari, a lawmaker with Khan's Pakistan Tehreek -e-Insaf party, said after visiting Khan the former premier was in high spirits.
"The doctors are allowing him to move … He is feeling perfectly well and he will soon be discharged," she told AFP.
The 70-year-old former international cricket star had been leading a campaign convoy of thousands since last week from Lahore to the capital Islamabad when he was attacked.
Khan suffered at least one bullet wound to his right leg when a gunmen sprayed pistol fire at his modified container truck as it drove slowly through a thick crowd in Wazirabad, around 170 kilometers east of Islamabad.
"Everyone who was standing in the very front row got hit," former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, who was standing behind Khan, told AFP.
PTI officials also called for supporters to stage rallies and marches across the country after Friday afternoon prayers, the most important of the week.
Protesters lit fires and blocked roads in several cities late Thursday as news of Khan's shooting spread.