Former special assistant to the prime minister (SAPM) Mirza Shahzad Akbar has said that his house in the United Kingdom (UK) — where he has been living in self-imposed exile — was subjected to a “deliberate and targeted criminal attack with the intent to cause serious harm”.

The development comes a little over a week after Akbar said he suffered a fractured nose and other facial injuries after being attacked at his home.

In a post on X on Thursday, Akbar said that his home in Cambridgeshire, England came under attack on December 31, 2025, in a “deliberate and targeted criminal attack with the intent to cause serious harm”.

He said that the perpetrators “criminally damaged the property and attempted to set it on fire, placing lives at immediate risk”.

Akbar maintained it was the second such attack “within one week against my home, myself, and my family, each carried out with clear malicious intent”.

He held that the incidents were not isolated.

“I was physically assaulted in a targeted attack on Dec 24, leaving me with substantial injuries,” Akbar recalled.

He added that UK authorities were actively investigating both events, which are being treated as targeted attacks”.

“The UK has a legal and moral obligation to exhaust all available powers and resources to ensure that it remains a safe country for all, particularly for political dissidents and individuals at risk of persecution,” he further said.

In response to a written query from Dawn regarding Akbar’s statement on the latest incident, a London Counter-Terrorism Policing (CTP) spokesperson’s reply appeared to address last week’s assault on the ex-PM’s aide.

“Officers from CTP London are investigating an assault of a man in his 50s, which happened in the Cambridge area on the morning of December 24.

“The investigation was passed to CTP London due to what appears to be the highly targeted nature of the assault against the victim. At this stage, however, we retain an open mind as to any potential motivation behind the attack. There is not believed to be any wider threat to the public in connection with this incident,“ the spokesperson said.

No arrests have been made, and the investigation remains ongoing, the spokesperson added.

Akbar, who was the accountability czar in the PTI government, said last week that an unk­nown assailant dressed in “construction or waste-collection attire” attacked him in Cambridge.

“The individual asked, ‘Are you Shahzad Akbar?’ and immediately began assaulting me,” Akbar posted on X. “I sustained facial injuries, including bruising and a fractured nose.”

The former accountability adviser termed the assault “cowardly” and urged the British government to ensure the safety of dissidents.

“Violence will not intimidate me or deter me from speaking out,” he wrote, vowing to continue exposing “corruption, human rights violations, and the erosion of democratic norms in Pakistan”.

This is the third such incident Akbar has reported since November 2023, when a masked individual threw acidic liquid at Akbar’s home in Hertfordshire. While Akbar had initiated legal action alleging Pakistani state involvement, Pakistan’s Foreign Office has “categorically rejected” those claims as “preposterous”.

Recently declared a proclaimed offender by an Islamabad court, Akbar also faces extradition efforts. Last month, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi had met United Kingdom High Commissioner Jane Marriott and handed over extradition papers for Akbar.