Former Pakistan premier Imran Khan on Friday claimed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Major General Faisal Naseer were part of the sinister plot to assassinate him in the same way former Punjab governor Salman Taseer was killed in 2011 by a religious extremist.
Khan, 70, suffered a bullet injury in the right leg when two gunmen fired a volley of bullets at him and others mounting on a container-mounted truck in the Wazirabad area of Punjab province, where he was leading a protest march against the Shehbaz Sharif government.
Addressing the nation from the Shaukat Khanum Hospital here, in his first address since the assassination attempt, Khan said he had made a video of four other individuals who were part of the larger conspiracy to kill him.
"Four people plotted to kill me. I made a video and named those people and have stashed it abroad," he said, adding that it would be released in case something untoward happens to him.
The cricketer-turned-politician said he received information about this sinister plot from "insiders".
"How did I find out? Insiders told me. The day before Wazirabad, they made the plan to kill me as they saw the number of people increasing using the script of religious extremism," he asserted.
Khan, the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party said that "handlers" had planned to get him murdered in the same way former Punjab governor Taseer was killed.
"Firstly, they accused me of blasphemy […] they made tapes and released them and PMLN projected it, I knew who was doing it.
"It is very easy to find out because this is a digital world. So first it was projected that I disrespected religion and then their plan was what they did in Wazirabad […] that a religious extremist killed Imran Khan," he claimed.
Khan said he had narrated this plan to the public during a September 24 rally. "This (the attempted assassination) happened exactly according to the script,'' he said.
In his address, Khan said he was hit by four bullets on his right leg during the assassination attempt a day earlier, when he was leading a political march in Pakistan's Punjab province.
Dr Faisal Sultan, who is treating Khan, said x-rays of Khan's right leg showed that his tibia was damaged and in fact fractured.
"In this scan, the line you see on the right leg is the main artery. The bullet fragments were very near it," Sultan said.
Khan has been demanding fresh elections and launched a long march to Islamabad on October 28 to press the government to accept his demands.
- PTI
English questioning rose from 20 per cent to 31 per cent, and racist jokes from 36 per cent to 41 per cent
Workplace violence against Black and ethnic minority employees rises to 26 per cent
Highlights
The Trades Union Congress surveyed 1,044 Black, Asian and ethnic minority employees. The results show clear increases in racist behaviour between 2020 and 2026.
Workers having their English questioned rose from 20 per cent to 31 per cent. Those hearing racist jokes went up from 36 per cent to 41 per cent.
Racist comments made to workers or around them increased from 31 per cent to 36 per cent.
Violence and threats
The most worrying finding involves physical threats and violence, which jumped from 19 per cent to 26 per cent.
Racist posts shared on workplace social media grew from 22 per cent to 28 per cent. Racist materials being passed around increased from 19 per cent to 25 per cent.
Beyond direct racism, many workers face unfair treatment. Nearly half (45 per cent) said they get harder or less popular jobs.
Over two in five (43 per cent) receive unfair criticism. The same number (41 per cent) stay stuck on temporary contracts.
Work conditions got worse too. Those not getting enough hours rose from 30 per cent to 40 per cent.
Workers denied overtime went from 30 per cent to 37 per cent. Being kept on short-term contracts increased from 33 per cent to 41 per cent.
Direct managers cause most unfair treatment (35 per cent), followed by other managers (19 per cent).
Bullying mainly comes from direct managers (30 per cent) and colleagues (28 per cent). Racist behaviour mostly comes from colleagues (33 per cent) and customers or clients (22 per cent).
Paul Nowak, TUC general secretary, said: "Black and ethnic minority workers are facing appalling and growing levels of racism and unfair treatment in Britain. This racism is plaguing the labour market – and it's getting worse."
The TUC is calling for urgent government action to tackle the problem. The union wants ring-fenced funding for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to enforce workplace protections.
It is pushing for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for companies with over 50 employees.
The TUC says the Employment Rights Act, which makes employers responsible for protecting workers from harassment by customers and clients, will be an important step forward.
The union also wants employers to treat racial harassment as a health and safety issue and monitor ethnicity data across recruitment, pay and promotions.