LAHORE: The target of a bomb attack was the Cancer Institute owned by former cricket skipper Imran Khan an ‘outspoken critic of Pakistan’s political parties’.
‘According to a New York Times Rt, six people died and 30 were injured why born/ exploded in this Cancer Hospital operated by Imran Khan. Imran is aspiring to become Prime Minister of Pakistan.
The blast occurred shortly after noon on Sunday, a normal working day in Pakistan, when about 150 patients and relatives were gathered at the sprawling hospital complex. One outer wall of the hospital was blown away. Hospital Officials said that the dead included two children who were patients and that 10 of the injured were in critical condition.
‘The bomb detonated in the city of Lahore at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Center, opened 16 months ago and dedicated to the memory of the mother of Pakistan’s former cricket captain, Imran Khan, Khan, 43, has said in recent days that he may start a movement to topple Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a fellow student with Khan at Oxford University 20 years ago.
Many of his criticisms have been directed at Bhutto, whom Khan has accused of leading a government obsessed with political vendettas, and self-enrichment, Bhutto has responded by tar~ getting Khan with income tax investigations, a ban on fundraising events for the cancer hospital in schools and other government run institutions, and a Dlackout on reports about the hospital ‘on the state run broadcasting network.
After the recent explosion, Bhutto made her first visit to the hospital, calling the blast, “a deplorable attack,” and hinting that it might have been the work ‘of loyalists of Pakistan’s main opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif. Sharif, who has tried and failed to recruit Khan as an ally, denied the allegation, Khan said that attack was intended to dis: courage him from entering politics.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 17, 1996
