RAWALPINDI: The Amir of Bahawalpur, Brig Sahibzada Mohammad Abbas Abbasi, was injured by bullet shots just after noon today [June 15].

Brig Malik Shaukat Husain, of the Combined Military Hospital, after performing a 20-minute operation on the Amir said not much harm was done to the Amir’s thigh as a result of the rifle shot. He said “a splinter” in the Amir’s thigh had been removed. There was no bullet in the thigh, and he was discharged after the operation.

After the operation, the Amir walked to his car with a limp, aided by hospital attendees. He smiled to the people waiting outside the operation theatre. Asked by [the agency] how he felt, the Amir said, “I am fine, and it does not hurt much.”

The alleged assailant, the Police said, is Aurangzeb Khan, of Thar village in Kallar Kuhar in the Chakwal Tehsil of Jhelum. Senior Superintendent of Police, Sardar M.A. Vakil Khan, said that Aurangzeb had been charged under Section 307 for attacking with intent to kill. The investigations were being conducted by the SSP himself.

He said that the accused Aurangzeb told the Police this afternoon “old family rivalries” formed the background of today’s incident. The alleged assailant was also understood to have told the Police that the Amir, through his relations in Chakwal, was trying to spread his political influence in the area which was not liked by the family of the accused.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2018