K-P CM alleges bid on life

K-P CM Sohail Afridi on Wednesday alleged that an armed man was sent to "kill" him while he was travelling from Sialkot to Wazirabad. "They had sent an assassin after us with the intention to kill. When we arrived in Wazirabad, my security team apprehended this armed individual, recovered a pistol from him, and handed him over to the local Station House Officer," Afridi said in a video statement shared by PTI on X. Afridi said he and his companions had been in Lahore the previous night at a dinner hosted at the residence of Mian Mahmood Rashid, claiming that the tents there were removed and the food was taken away by police after they left for Sialkot following a street movement in Lahore. He said the "electricity supply to the house where they were staying in Sialkot was disconnected and the generator was damaged, including its wires and other components". He further added that, "They were then forced to move to the house of Umar Dar, where the electricity was also disconnected and the generator was subsequently damaged." "We were in severe heat," Afridi said, adding that they travelled from Sialkot towards Wazirabad. Meanwhile, Gujranwala police rejected Afridi's claims, saying the person taken into custody was police official Ali, who was deployed for security duty. In a press release, the Gujranwala police said members of the chief minister's protection team had allegedly identified him as a highly suspicious person despite his deployment on security duty. The statement said Ali identified himself at the scene, showed his identity card and made it clear that he was deployed for the K-P chief minister's security. "Despite this, he was subjected to severe suspicion," the press release said. The Gujranwala police said Ali was subjected to violence in the presence of the SHO of City Wazirabad. It added that his presence could be clearly seen in photographs taken at the scene.