LAHORE Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was wounded on Thursday when his convoy was shot at in the countrys east, multiple local news channels said.

Mr Khan, 70, was leading a protest march on Islamabad to demand snap elections. He was shot in the foot but was out of danger, media reports added.

He is in a stable condition, Mr Raoof Hasan, a senior Khan aide told AFP, adding: This was an attempt to kill him, to assassinate him.

He is stable. The bullet hit his leg. He is being shifted to a hospital in Lahore, Mr Asad Umar, former finance minister and Mr Khans party leader, told a TV channel.

Another party leader, Mr Imran Ismail, said that Mr Khan had been shot in the leg three to four times.

Speaking to Bol TV, Mr Ismail said that he was next to Mr Khan when the attacker opened fire with an AK-47.

PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry confirmed in an interview withAaj TVimmediately after the incident that Mr Khan was shot in what he said was a targeted attack during the leaders protest march in Wazirabad on Thursday.

TV footage showed Mr Khan being moved into a vehicle after the incident with the help of other people present at the site. There was a bandage tied around the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders leg, reported Dawn newspaper.

Mr Chaudhry said that three people were injured in the attack, including Senators Faisal Javed and Ahmad Chattha.

A former cricket star, Mr Khan, who was ousted from power through a no-confidence vote in April, has been holding rallies across Pakistan that are attracting large crowds to seek early elections.

MrKhans own meteoric rise from the fringes of politics to the prime ministers office in 2018 was a showcase for how hard-bitten Pakistans politics have become: His competitors were winnowed from the electoral field by criminal charges, and by threat and intimidation from security forces.

Once in office, he and his supporters employed those same tools to harass and silence journalists and political opponents who criticised him.

Even after falling out with military leaders and being removed from office this year in a no-confidence vote, the charismatic politician has been able to keep himself and his party at the centre of Pakistani politics.

It is a demonstration of his ability to tap the publics deep-seated frustration with the political system and wield the kind of populist power once relegated to Pakistani religious leaders.

That popularity has alarmed the new government led by Mr Shehbaz Sharif, and the military establishment, which began picking off his supporters and have now turned the justice system on MrKhanhimself.

But the well-worn playbook seems to be doing little to keep him in check, at least so far, and some analysts had long feared the showdown could erupt into violence. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, AFP, NYTIMES