PTI chairman Imran Khan. PHOTO: AFP/ FILE
Imran suffered injuries as he fell off a lifter while being raised onto a stage to address a huge crowd gathered in Lahore’s Gulberg area on May 7.
“If I hadn’t been in hospital, I could have been dead,” Imran said, adding that the then interior minister told him about the scheduled assassination attempt when he visited him in the hospital.
The PTI chief went on to say that “the fall that nearly killed me quite possibly saved my life.”
“I had been told I was number one on the terrorist hit-list, although who the terrorists would be was anybody’s guess. There are perhaps 25 militant groups which now call themselves 'Taliban' and any one of them could have been hired by my political opponents,” Imran said.
Speaking about his time in the hospital, Imran said he was lucky to be alive, however, he greatly feared being paralysed.
“I’ve always been fit; I’m now 60 and I’ve never known a life where I wasn’t in control of my body. I found myself prey to morbid thoughts, something completely out of character. I thought in particular about the victims of drone attacks and terrorist bombs. We always hear about the dead, not so much those who end up maimed. That was my great fear: not death, but being disabled.”
He added that as he regained consciousness, he started feeling all his toes, fingers and limbs, and realised he hadn’t lost any sensation. “My relief was intense,” he said.
COMMENTS (85)
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Here i was wishfully thinking nothing can damage IK's head any further, but seems like his head injuries from the fall has done it! The guy has flown over the cookoo's nest!
old dirty politics of pakistan... “If you can’t perform then create diversion”..failure of PTI in KPP
Note to my Shia brothers and sisters in Pakistan. Install faux stages and lifters in your neighborhoods. Practice climbing on them and then randomly falling down. It may save your life from a future terrorist attack. For those who doubt my suggestion .... if worked for Imran .. didn't it??
Imran Khans choice of newspaper tells a lot about him. Daily Mail is the most vile and racist newspaper in the UK.
@Najeebullah:
Perhaps never
Oh God, for once try not to blow your own horn Mr.Khan. You were allowed to campaign freely throughout the country while ANP leaders were being attacked openly. Still, you have not learned to accept that the fall was your teams fault and whatever threat there may be was probably nothing more or less than a threat faced by any ordinary Pakistani right now of being a victim of a random terrorist attack.
@Mirza: IK is a legend, and his fall saved his life, not the past trash government. Get your facts right!!
The statement "adding that the then interior minister told him about the scheduled assassination attempt when he visited him in the hospital." tells us a lot! The then Interior Minister Dr Rahman Malik was a known liar, on whose statements the people of Pakistan had completely stopped believing. He was expert at throwing the blame of every mishap on Taliban. His statement that "most of the people were killed because their girlfriends had got them assassinated" still echoes in our ears. Since Eid is approaching we remember he used to block mobile phone services on the pretext of terrorist threats (and minted money through greay traffick). Now Imran Khan Niazi is trying to give Rahman Malik a new lease of life on his return from UK! Birds of the same feather flock together.
@Mirza: the government at that time was the caretaker or interim government,,,, not the government imran khan criticized for so long
@Xnain: Clever, aren't you? He never said that. Never even implied it.
@Silas: Read the article again. He did mention 25 groups working under Taliban. Try speaking against parties in Karachi, you will get clear idea of how we much we are in 21st century.
@Saz: Good comments, very true.
@Xnain: Excellent comments
@Pakistani: "Lol that’s same as Altaf Hussain giving excuses for not returning to Pakistan. Just saying" Janab Paakistani Sahib, no matter how best you could express in English, but there are times, when one can not but uses his mother language. When frustrated, try to be a THAITH PUNJABI, I bet you will enjoy praising them.
Lol that's same as Altaf Hussain giving excuses for not returning to Pakistan. Just saying.
Imran Khan again putting the blame on his political opponents and not fully condemning the Taliban. Shows two things
1) He is a coward
2) He is too naive who does not realize this is the 21st century in which political parties do not assassinate their political opponents are not assassinated with bullets but through the media and false cases.
@ghazanfar: So that's your defense of stupid comments made by your leader? Typical PTI tactic of deflecting flak: try to divert the audience's attention rather than tackling the issue at hand.
Stupidity at its best. Please enjoy a trip in London to save White Elephant. Literally, he has gone mad and foolish after losing the elections. Play a constructive role and get over with the loss. PEACE
@uH yeah right. Thinking like a typical brainwashed pro bhutto/nawaz person. Keep handing over your country to criminals like PML PPP MQM. You simply want to put the same feudal-industrial mindset into power and it's people like you who have been having their say for a long time now and see where Pakistan is -- bravo !. Now since the party of choice (PML-N) is in power don't u dare complain if Pakistan's problems are not solved. You should be extremely happy also because your favorite corrupt party has won again. OH yeh I should also say your PML-N party is pro Lashker-e-Jhangvi ( group openly claiming to kill Shias) .. continue voting for murderers
IK is the only LEADER this country has -the rest are bunch of tag-alongs. We need IK to live for ever-so if he belives that God has looked after him and has given him the chance to live then I do not have a problem and undertsnad his viewpoint.
@Babablacksheep: he has announced boycott of any future APC. He wants a private meeting with the COAS!
OK. Get well soon. The fall has did some damage.
No wonder the poor guy wants a closed door meeting with the ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ with the PM & Tthe COASC.
all those try to undermine hime and his party just think for one what better an option do you people have?.. PMLN? MQM? PPP? or ANP?..grow up and have some logic. if you really have a reason to be against someone than good, but pointless thrashing does'nt make sense..
@uH: Voters are not idiots but are responsible. Rather than blaming PTI, followup with your elected leaders in Govt for the commitments made during election.
Can tribune please tell us where the title is in the article? Like this quote, "If I hadn’t fallen off the lifter, I could have been assassinated: Imran Khan". What does tribune achieve from troll like headings?
If something would have happened to Him......... +++++++++++++++++++++++++ who would have saved the elephants?
@skhan: " He had bigger threat from political rivals than Taliban! That is what IK is trying to say here" I love your DESCRIPTION - TRANSLATION of what IK really said. But Khan Sahib, believe me, HERE on this form, are not all MADRASSAA Graduates.
This fake 'revolutionary' believes Pakistani nation as stupid fool which, it's not, otherwise he would have been prime minister of Pakistan with overwhelming majority.Every time I decide to forgive him and forget him(giving him due respect as good cricketer and philanthropist) he comes up with statements that make no sense.His innocent supporters,whom I think extremely naive, may have short memories others have not.
Khan sb, we know your political opponents (PMLN in this case) have not delivered upto people's expectations, but they are not so morally low that they will join hands with militants to eliminate you. Please sound responsible, you are not a cricketer anymore, now there is huge fan following for you and even you wont be able to control their emotions, if God forbid something happens to you. Please act responsible. This way, people will start losing faith in you.
@Q. Zahid: Talibans are everyone enemy. if he is a friend of Taliban than why are they killing innocents in his KPK.
@Anonymous: Yeah.. but the ones who are targeted matter to these parties, unlike IK
@Atif: " Sure go ahead and vote for PML PPP MQM like you guys always do but then you have no right to complain about Pakistan because you destroyed it yourself with your own vote!" Typical PTI mindset of self-assumed superiority. U guys think that everyone (in this case the entire country minus 30 odd districts) who doesn't vote PTI is a complete idiot. Why don't u ever try getting out of ur plush DHA & Model Town homes n go see what the ground realities are. Do you think that the electoral campaigns your party ran in the elections was targeted at wooing the voter in say charar pind or gizri or sheereen jinnah? It was nothing but a 'poondi' exercise for you pretty PTI boys and girls. For once I am thankful to the illiterate masses for not handing us over to pseudos like you and others in PTI.
And yet he continued to speak in favor of the Taliban. Says to me that IK is either confused or in bed with the Taliban
@suhaib: thanks for the laughs
Mr Khan is a living salutation to the "attention Will Have Overly Reactive Effects" Syndrome! Thank you for another great laugh!
He had bigger threat from political rivals than Taliban! That is what IK is trying to say here..
'any of the 25 millitant groups themselves taliban... hired by political opponents.' The statement confirms his mad hubris that clouds his judgement and impairs his behaviour and decision-making! Ridiculous...
He thinks he could be assassinated by any of the 25 militant factions who call themselves Taliban and can be used by any of his political opponents.. I disagree, our ESTABLISHMENT is known for assassinating anyone who chants for a 'Unison' slogan. Like Benazir, who was deemed as '4 soobo'n ki zanjeer, Benazir' (Chain to keep all 4 provinces united) Imran Khan also raised the slogan that 'I will make these people ONE nation' so my hunch is the establishment would have obviously wanted to create crises by eliminating him because unlike PPP and PMLN's leaders PTI doesn't have Imran Khan's kids taking over and gain votes out of public sympathy like PPP did in 2008. Besides the general populace did think of him as the ONLY ray of hope, so assassinating him would have created some mass havoc, delaying elections. Indeed Allah plans best.
It was the well wishes by millions of people that culminated in blessing for IK.Ik is the heart beat of millions of educated and sane folk on political landscape!The fall and recovery are not less than miracle!
Does he ever think about the soldiers who are paralysed? Does he ever think about the fallen ones? Go and speak to your Taliban friends!
@Mirza:
This time you are wrong.
He is saying that he was informed while he was on the hospital bed.
If this is indeed true, this should lead to 100s of questions.
If this information was available with the interior ministry why was it not shared with Imran before that day?
If the information was not available on that day, how did they know later? It's impossible to know of an unexecuted militant operation after the operation has been aborted.
Surviving that accident should be a lesson in humility and not the kind of arrogance Mr Khan displays. After all no one is either immortal or indispensible, Imran Khan hopefully you realize this basic truth and let your, equally arrogant, fans also learn to feel their feet on the ground and use their heads on their shoulders and stop looking down on the rest of the 99% Pakistanis as some inferior race of natives.
Welcome to politics Mr.Khan. You mean you were about to be killed if you were on that stage ? This is not your first interview after the incident, you could have told this before, or its just that you were out of the news these days and now you need some public attention ?
Why does anyone find Imran Khan's suggestion that political opponents may have been behind his planned assassination? It happens every day in Karachi.
IK may Allah protect you
..".....I was part of a Zionist conspiracy to take over Pakistan."
Israelis certainly have some intelligent Agents. They never use a dumb sleeping Tope.
@Mirza: When did he said that the last government saved him? please go through the article again.
When will he say something which makes sense???
@Saim: I am honestly having hard time deciphering your comment as if the country is not already unstable and as if a lot of our countrymen (including political leaders) have not lost their lives already (ANP has lost more than 700 political workers to terrorism)? Just criticizing for the sake of it undermines a person's intellectual credibility.
Enough is enough man. don't show off now. there isn't any difference between you & mathira !!! showoffs
In politics most often the older players just remain patient for the new guys to self destruct. If PTI goes on like this it will soo become another......has been.
Typical of 'Mr Brown' in west and 'taliban khan' in Pakistan.
@Mirza: he is copying PPP to have attention and sympathy? killers never harm one who shows willingness to talk to them.
Wish you a happy and healthy life IK. Shame on all the losers for their silly comments.
There are many terrorist groups, no one know which group try to murder which person. The degeneration was started by Gen Zia and now Pakistan is fully rotten. There is no responsible media nor intelligence agencies to find out who and where these terrorists are. They are experts only in blaming neighbouring countries to prove their own inefficiency.
Come on IK don't start to sound like our old / typical politicians. Also whn u refer to negotiations with these so called Taliban's can you kindly share which sub group you would like to negotiate (ofcourse it would be the most authentic one). For heaven sake pple came out and voted for you in this elections not to hear these stories (even if any thing is true with this) but to deliver wht u committed, else u will see the same fate as ANP in the next elections atleast in KPK.
OK - so, are you going to file a case against them? And for murdering your 2 MPAs.
whats new every one in Pakistan carrying a cross hair mark on his forehead.So many has killed and so many are waiting for their turn. Plz stay in UK and donn`t bother to attend APC to solve this issue
By who? You are the allies of Talibans.
Too full of himself.
Mirza
"...the past govt now IK is telling the truth that they saved his life! Better late than never. "
What part of the news item did you infer this from? The interior minister part? If so your sarcasm is nonsense as it was a caretaker setup, not the 'past government' in control, when the incident happened.
wow well he is britain so he needs to pretend that he is anit taliban, when he is Pakistan he is the taliban B team. Well seems after 16 years IK has learned the lota politics very well.
Anti PTI.... Don`t leave your moment for bashing......
Look at all the above comments. Can you see their relevance to the actual story? Because I have read Imran's column in the daily times for three times and I am utterly at a loss to comprehend the great hidden philosophy behind these comments as these have not an iota of relevance to what he has said. Guys, please read his actual column and then speak
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2380018/How-I-cheated-death-assassins-bullet--thanks-fall-nearly-killed-me.html
Khan sahab can do anything to seek attention of the masses!
Riiiight...number one...right after all the attacks on other parties and their leaders, or were those not terrorist attacks? Talk about tall claims.
Apparently we are being told there are 25 militant groups, who are only political extremists or 'puppets' in nature, but seemingly have hi-jacked the Taliban's good religious name - who obviously would never have been hired by political opponents or attempt an assassination. The denial and delusion on the nature of religious extremist militants and this narrative is just sad...
* so he jumped deliberatly from forklift to avoid his assasination?*
@Falcon:
Falcon:
1- Journalistic resource.....do they have any credibility? 2- Was IK the only one supporting democratic setup? What about thousands of candidates, and hundresed of leaders of different parties participating in democratic process as much as IK was doing, then why IK on list becuase of this reason. 3- ....might make an attempt to take him out to de-stabilize the country....Jinnah, Liaqat, Bhutto, Zia...all passed away suddenly, country didn't get destabilized, is IK more than any of those? Country is and was destabilized by living and not by those who passed away naturally or accidently.
I would say, its a cheap attempt to makeup on falling popularity through sympathy sentiments.
I think if this guy and his party are gone the only ray of hope left for Pakistan will disappear. All other parties have shown their true colors (PPP, PML, MQM) multiple times and yet pakistan ke awam still supports them blindly.
Sure go ahead and vote for PML PPP MQM like you guys always do but then you have no right to complain about Pakistan because you destroyed it yourself with your own vote!
God save Pakistan.
If it was intimated to him by the former IM then there must be truth to it. I don't see a reason for either of them to lie.
so its time to change his policy regarding terrorism.....!!!!
@Mirza: Your reading skills are laughable. The fall saved him, in case you missed the basic premise of the story.
If in KPK you dont deliver, divert, divert and divert again
@Xnain: what an impressive analytical ability you are blessed with
O.K. What else???
“I had been told I was number one on the terrorist hit-list, although who the terrorists would be was anybody’s guess. There are perhaps 25 militant groups which now call themselves ‘Taliban’ and any one of them could have been hired by my political opponents,”
Political opponents? Come on!
Very well said. Religious extremist are being used by political groups for their own purposes. I urge you to read the entire article at dailymail. ET as usual has extracted the part without mentioning the context. .
I won't be surprised since I remember reading a report from a very sound journalistic resource few days prior to his fall that there are some Taliban factions that are against him for supporting democratic setup and might make an attempt to take him out to de-stabilize the country.
Its time,Imran Khan & Nawaz Sharif realise that appeasement of murderer would not work,eliminate terrorists otherwise they ll eliminate you.
every day and every time this guy speaks, he gets closer in ranks and stature to all other players in the ring i.e. Nawaz, Zardari, Fazlu etc....
Oh, thats something new and funny. So he is suggesting all big leaders to fall from the lifter to avoid being assassinated,....
After all the trash talking against the past govt now IK is telling the truth that they saved his life! Better late than never.