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Transcript/ScriptPakistan Khan Shooting
HEADLINE: Ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan Shot and Injured
TEASER: The attack as he was leading an anti-government march appears to have been an assassination attempt
PUBLISHED AT: 11/3/22 & 8:05p
BYLINE: Urdu and Deewa Services
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Washington
VIDEOGRAPHER: Ali Furqan, Salman Idrees, Muhammad Saqib, Khalil Ahmed, Malik Waqar Ahmad
VIDEO EDITOR:
SCRIPT EDITORS: Kenochs; Reifenrath, DJ (ok)
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA Original | VOA Urdu & Deewa Services
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _x_ RADIO __
TRT: 2:43
VID APPROVED BY: Jepsen
TYPE:
EDITOR NOTES: This is the final version of the script))
((INTRO))
[[Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, was shot and injured Thursday in an apparent assassination attempt while leading an anti-government march. Aisha Khalid narrates this report from VOA’s Urdu and Deewa services.]]
((NARRATOR))
On the sixth day of his anti-government political march to Pakistan’s capital city of Islamabad, former Prime Minister Imran Khan was shot and wounded in the leg in Wazirabad, a city in the northeastern province of Punjab.
At least 13 others were injured in the attack. One person was killed.
Khan, who was ousted as prime minister in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April and has been rallying in the streets to demand early elections, was quickly transported to a hospital and is in stable condition.
((NARRATOR))
Police arrested a suspect. While the alleged shooter was in custody, a video surfaced on the internet of him saying he had acted alone.
((Akhtar Abbas, Gujrat Regional Police Chief)) ((Male in Urdu))
“The suspect is in police custody. The investigation is ongoing, and a special investigation unit has been assigned.”
((NARRATOR))
Thousands of Pakistanis, including members of Khan’s political party, ‘Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf,’ or PTI, took to the streets across the country, demanding justice.
((Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan, PTI Senior Leader)) ((Male in Urdu))
“All those mafias, all those powerful circles who want to keep Pakistan as a state and the people of Pakistan as a nation as their slaves, they have decided that a leader who speaks about Pakistan's self-respect, honor and true independence should be eliminated.”
((Ayesha Bano, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly Member)) ((Female in Urdu)) “There are protests everywhere, and this proves that the people of Pakistan are standing up for Imran Khan. These kinds of cowardly acts cannot scare our women, our children, our youth or our elders.”
((Riaz Chamkani, Islamabad Resident)) ((Male in Pashto))
“No matter how much we condemn, it will not be enough. This is now government’s responsibility to interrogate the attackers to find out who planned the attack and who was behind this.”
((NARRATOR))
While the investigation will take time, PTI supporters and leaders were quick to blame Pakistan’s ruling political party, the Pakistan Muslim League, for the attack.
Khan aide Asad Umar said in a video statement that Khan believes that current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and intelligence official Major-General Faisal Naseer were behind the attack.
Sanaullah rejected the allegations in a press conference, and Sharif condemned the attack and ordered an immediate investigation.
((NARRATOR))
The shooting attempt comes nearly 15 years after former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007.
((For VOA’s Urdu and Deewa Services – Aisha Khalid – VOANEWS)
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