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Tag: assasination

  • Colombia VP Marquez says security thwarted an attempted assassination

    Colombia VP Marquez says security thwarted an attempted assassination

    Environmental activist Maria Marquez, who survived a 2019 assassination attempt, claims explosives were discovered close to her house.

    The assassination attempt near Francia Marquez’s home was thwarted, according to the vice president of Colombia, who was elected on a historic ballot in August.

    The nation’s first Afro-Colombian vice president, Marquez, announced on Twitter on Tuesday that her security had “deactivated and destroyed a high-capacity explosive device” in the road leading to her family’s home in the village of Yolombo in the country’s southwest.

    Marquez said the device contained more than seven kilograms (15.4 lbs) of explosive devices and involved “a plastic bag containing a high-powered explosive substance made of ammonium nitrate, powdered aluminum, and… nails.”

    She added that her security agents discovered the explosive after reports of suspicious behavior by “outside elements” in the area.

    No further details were immediately available.

    Marquez, a vaunted environmental activist, became part of Colombia’s first-ever left-wing government following her victory with President Gustavo Petro, a former mayor of Bogota and one-time rebel with the now-defunct M-19 movement.

    The election underlined a drastic change in presidential politics in Colombia, a country that has long approached leftist candidates warily for their perceived association with decades of armed conflict.

    Petro has attempted to end the continuing violence in the country by negotiating with left-wing rebels and armed groups such as drug traffickers, drawing criticism from right-wing factions.

    ‘Another attempt’

    In her tweet on Tuesday, Marquez noted the incident represented “another attempt on my life”.

    In 2019, following a series of death threats, Marquez was attacked in her conflict-wracked home region of Cauca by men wielding guns and grenades during a meeting with community leaders. She was not harmed.

    Activists are often targeted in Colombia, where armed groups and criminal gangs remain active despite a 2016 peace deal between the government and the FARC rebel group. At least 138 human rights defenders were killed in 2021, accounting for more than a third of the global total.

    Shortly after the swearing-in in August, a vehicle in Petro’s presidential motorcade also came under gunfire in the northeast of the country. The government said no one was hurt in the attack, which occurred at an illegal checkpoint.

    Source: BBC.com

  • Imran Khan: Shock and condemnation over the attack on Pakistan’s ex-prime minister

    An attack on Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, whose supporters claim was an assassination attempt, has sparked international outrage.

    Mr Khan, 70, is recovering in hospital after being shot in the leg during a protest march in Wazirabad, Pakistan’s north-east.

    The attack on his convoy killed one person and injured at least ten others.

    However, according to his team, Mr Khan is in stable condition and could be discharged in the coming days.

    The attack on Mr Khan has electrified the country, which the cricketer-turned-politician led until April, when he was ousted by a parliamentary vote of no confidence.

    Schools were closed in the capital, Islamabad, after his party – the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – called for nationwide protests following Friday prayers. President Arif Alvi – a founding member of the PTI – called it a “heinous assassination attempt”.

    Mr Khan’s political opponents have also been quick to condemn the attack, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordering an immediate investigation.

    Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for calm, saying: “Violence has no place in politics, and we call on all parties to refrain from violence, harassment and intimidation.”

    Pakistan – which is reeling from an ongoing economic crisis and devastating floods – has a record of political violence, with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto assassinated in 2007. Many evoked her killing in the wake of the attack on Mr Khan.

    How the attack unfolded

    Mr Khan – who has been fighting to return to office since he was ousted earlier this year – had been leading a “long march” of protests calling for early elections to facilitate his comeback.

    By Thursday, his convoy had reached Wazirabad, where crowds had gathered to hear him speak.

    He was stood on top of an open truck-bed surrounded by aides and his other party members when the shots rang out.

    “It was so sudden that it took me a while to understand what was going on,” one party staffer, Mueezuddin, told the BBC.

    However, from their vantage point they were able to pick out the attacker.

    “We saw the attacker had emptied a whole magazine,” Mueezuddin said, “[and he had] loaded another magazine when he was grabbed by a boy from behind.”

    Unverified videos on social media show an assailant in the crowd pointing his pistol at Mr Khan’s convoy before being overpowered by Mr Khan’s supporters.

    Footage of the incident and witness accounts suggested a security guard was also seen firing from the container.

    Mueezuddin said Mr Khan and those around him ducked quickly after the first shots, and when he was hit he remained calm while he was given first aid by his bodyguards.

    He was then moved into a bulletproof car and rushed away to hospital in Lahore.

    Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi has suggested there may have been more than one attacker, saying Mr Khan had been “shot in the leg from the front while the alleged attacker who was caught on the spot was on the right side”.

    Dispute over possible motive

    Immediately after the shooting, some of his allies told media that Mr Khan believed the current political leaders – including Prime Minister Sharif, the interior minister and a military general – were behind the attack.

    One spokesman, Raoof Hasan, told the BBC’s Newshour programme the government was “attempting to eliminate [Imran Khan] physically”.

    But in a press conference on Friday, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah rejected the allegations, saying that the Punjab government was to blame for any security lapses in the state. “We see Imran Khan as a political opponent, not an enemy,” he added.

    Mr Khan, who remains popular, has previously characterised his removal as prime minister as a political conspiracy and been loudly critical for months of the current government and military leaders. Courts have convicted him in recent corruption cases but he has disputed the verdicts as politically motivated.

    Police on Tuesday night released a video confession of the man who they said had attempted to kill Mr Khan.

    It’s unclear the conditions under which the interview was carried out. But, in response to police asking him why he had opened fire, he said: “He was misguiding the people. I wanted to kill him. I tried to kill him.”

    The video has been dismissed by Mr Khan’s allies as a “cover-up”.

    One suspect remains in custody but no charges have been laid.

  • Japan man sets himself on fire in apparent protest of Abe funeral

    A Japanese man has set himself alight reportedly to protest a state funeral for ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in July.

    Hundreds of foreign dignitaries are expected to attend the funeral on 27 September.

    On Wednesday, witnesses called police after spotting a man on fire near the prime minister’s office in Tokyo.

    Officers put out the blaze, and took the still-conscious man to hospital, local media reported.

    The extent of his injuries and his current condition is unknown. Japanese media reports say the man is believed to be in his 70s.

    The government is yet to comment on the protest. But public opposition to the holding of the state funeral has intensified in recent months, with polls showing a majority of voters unhappy with the expenditure.

    Abe was shot dead on 8 July, aged 67, at a campaign rally for his political party. The killing of Japan’s longest-serving prime minister was condemned internationally and shocked Japan, a country with a minimal record of political violence and gun crime.

    But state funerals are not an established practice in Japan, and protesters say they resent the use of public funds on the event that is projected to cost about 1.65bn yen (£10.1m; $11.4m).

    One of the country’s main opposition parties, the Constitutional Democratic Party, has also said its lawmakers won’t participate in next week’s ceremony.

    Sour mood ahead of state funeral

    Many in Japan are commenting on how the mood around Abe’s state funeral contrasts starkly with the affection shown at the Queen’s state funeral in the UK.

    Surveys show a majority of Japanese are against the event. Aside from the amount of taxpayers’ money being spent, the guestlist – which reportedly includes representatives from the Burmese junta – is raising eyebrows.

    Others say that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is failing to address Abe’s and senior ruling party politicians’ links to the controversial Unification Church, and this is increasing opposition.

    Adding to the sour mood, a film about Abe’s murder – produced by a former member of the terror group the Japanese Red Army – will be shown next week, with critics saying it romanticises the killing.

    Police are yet to confirm details of the protest on Tuesday, but local media reported the man had voiced his opposition to the funeral to a nearby officer before setting himself alight.

    Handwritten notes were also found around him expressing the same message, local media reported.

    Criticism of the state funeral has also increased as more politicians in Japan’s parliament have been found to have connections with a controversial church.

    The man charged with killing Abe said he had targeted the former prime minister for his connections to the Unification Church, which he said had bankrupted his family.

    Source: BBC

  • Yagaba MP narrates how he allegedly escaped an assassination attempt

    Member of Parliament (MP) for Yagaba-Kubore Constituency in the North-East Region, Alhaji Abdul-Rauf Tanko Ibrahim, has revealed how he miraculously escaped an assassination attempt by some unknown hoodlums.

    He disclosed to MyNewsGh.com that his Landcruiser vehicle was shot at through the windshield several times but fortunately enough, he was not driving at that particular moment.

    According to him, his luck was the fact the vehicle was not in motion and there was no one behind the steering wheel at the time.

    “Somewhere along the line as we stopped, my vehicle was at close range shot at by an unknown person which perforated the windshield with me being the target because I drive myself almost all the time”. He recounted.

    Narrating further, the MP also disclosed how he was almost lynched by scores of people while embarking on a house to house campaign tour in the same area.

    “We reported the matter to the chief of the area who warned that anyone caught in such acts would be fined. We left back to the grounds but they kept pelting stones at us and my boys wanted to retaliate but I calmed them down. I advised we call off the event and move away just to secure the safety of those gathered. Even as we were about leaving tensions were high but I asked someone to drive my vehicle while I sat in the campaign car,” he narrated.

    Source: My News GH