World in Photos: Pakistan’s ‘dangerous moment’ after attack against Imran Khan

In the hours after Thursday’s attack on Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, Grid reported that an already volatile economic and political situation in the country might soon get worse. Specifically, Grid Special Contributor Hassan Abbas voiced a concern that Khan might use the attack to condemn his opponents and rally his own followers to rise up against them.

“My worry,” Abbas said, “is what if Imran Khan will start saying in a few days or in a few hours that his political opponents did this? His supporters are already very, very emotional — even raising slogans against the army chief. So they might come out in bigger numbers.”

As these photos help illustrate, Abbas was prescient. Still recuperating from his wounds, the highly popular and highly polarizing former prime minister issued a statement blaming two top government officials and a general involved in the attack — and his party called for a nationwide strike after Friday prayers. The government called Khan’s allegations “shameful.”

The photos give a sense of what has followed: crowds taking to the streets and in some cases the highways in and around several cities, including Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta and in Wazirabad, where the attack took place. Also in these photos, security forces on alert, and a vigil at the hospital where Khan has been treated — although the wounds were to his legs and are not life-threatening.

Khan intends to keep up his march and call for new elections. Meanwhile, as Abbas made clear, this strategically important, nuclear-armed nation is in dire need of stability on the economic and political fronts both.

“The civil-military relationship is on the decline,” Abbas said. “The economy is in a bad situation. Political stability is on the rocks in a very critical way. So this is a really dangerous moment for Pakistan, without a doubt.”