Imran Khan Assailant Naveed Ahmad Was 'Not Very Religious', Say Neighbours

Imran Khan Assailant Naveed Ahmad Was 'Not Very Religious', Say Neighbours
Following the attempted assassination of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan by a Wazirabad resident Naveed Ahmad on Thursday, new details on the shooter are emerging. Here's everything we know.

Naveed Ahmad fired a round of bullets aimed at Imran Khan, but only managed to shoot him in the leg. Unfortunately the bullets took the life of a nearby PTI supporter, and injured some party leaders who were also on the container.

The assailant was then taken into police custody, where a video of him was released, in which he confessed to shooting the PTI chief as 'he was misleading the people'. Claiming that he had intended to shoot just Imran Khan, he said, "It didn't sit well with my conscience that they are playing loud music on their deck while the Azaan is being recited, so I decided to kill him."

https://twitter.com/TFT_/status/1588158648169238532

When asked if his decision to shoot at Imran Khan was spontaneous, he said yes, but then changed his answer and said he had decided it since morning, but then changing his answer once again, said that he had planned on doing so from the day Khan left Lahore.

He also said that he was acting alone, and wasn't being backed by any group or political party.

According to a report by the BBC, Naveed Ahmed is a resident of the Suhadra area in Wazirabad, where he lives with his wife, two sons and his mother. His second son was born just ten days ago, while the older is a year and a half.

Naveed used to work in Saudi Arab, but returned to Pakistan a few months ago. In Pakistan, he wasn't working anywhere in particular, but would occasionally help out his brothers with the boring business that his own late father had been involved in.

According to neighbours, the family belongs to the Sunni Barelvi sect of Islam, and there are varying reports about the religiosity of the family. One neighbour claimed that Naveed was sometimes seen praying in the mosque, while another said that his family wasn't 'religious at all', and he hadn't seen Naveed praying regularly at all, saying that his family was 'a regular traditionally religious' family.