UK police treating Naeem Bukhari incident as ‘attempted murder’

POLICE in London are treating the April 27 incident involving Naeem Bukhari as ‘attempted murder’, it is learnt through official sources.

Investigators are looking for a man who might have followed Mr Bukhari, a prominent lawyer associated with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), to the Marble Arch Underground Station.

According to the sources, the suspect allegedly pushed Mr Bukhari onto the platform, causing serious injuries for which he is being treated at a hospital in London.

The British Transport Police (BTP) in response to a telephone call by this reporter revealed that they had CCTV footage and were looking for the suspect, a man of ‘Asian descent’. The suspect had disappeared in the crowd after allegedly attacking Mr Bukhari. It is believed the investigators have the CCTV footage of where this man came from.

Initial reports suggested that Mr Bukhari tripped and fell onto the platform but later a picture appeared on social media showing his forehead and right eye bruised and his right arm bandaged, raising doubts about the nature of the incident.

Rumours then started to circulate on social media, including the one alleging Mr Bukhari was in a drunken state and was thrashed by some people outside a Pall Mall nightclub. This was hoax, as a call to the police station that caters to Pall Mall confirmed. It had no such incident reported. “If anyone had been beaten with iron rods in our area, we would have been in an emergency situation. No such thing happened,” said a police official.

The BTP website has run an appeal for witnesses to the incident at the Ma­rble Arch Underground Station at 1510 hours on Friday (April 27). They were investigating an attempted murder and said a member of the public pushed Mr Bukhari onto the ‘eastbound’ track, while appealing for witnesses.

A staff member at the hospital where Mr Bukhari is being treated said he was out of danger.