LONDON: Prominent lawyer and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Naeem Bokhari and British Transport Police (BTP) on Sunday denied media reports of a murder attempt on Bokhari at a London underground tube station.
In an interview with a local news channel, Bokhari rubbished reports that a man had attempted to murder him.
Bokhari revealed that on May 1, he fell asleep during his journey to his hotel after having dinner at his friend Barrister Iftikhar Ahmed’s house in North London.
“We reached the Marble Arch station and I fell asleep when my wife woke me up. I was not conscious when I left the train and took the wrong exit and that was the time when I fell while still being asleep,” said the lawyer.
“I fell down and four of my floating ribs were broken. Doctors have examined the injuries to my head. They have conducted two MRIs so far and they want to find out why I fell unconscious,” said Bokhari, adding, “I informed the doctors that I did not even wake up.”
He termed certain reports about him being beaten up and assaulted as baseless, saying, “Nobody pushed me, shouted at me or attacked me.”
Referring to the mixup of Bokhari’s incident by the media with the attack on Sir Robert Malpas on April 27, Bokhari said that he had arrived in London on April 28 and “there is no question of me being attacked on April 27 when I was still in Pakistan and preparing to take the flight to London”.
Bokhari observed that too many speculations were doing rounds on the media.
“Trust me, I was asleep when I fell down. The British Transport Police has said I was not attacked. I should have gone straight. I should have followed my wife but I was asleep. Nothing happened and I am back to normal but I am going through trauma.”
He said that his plans to go to the United States to raise funds for Namal College have also been delayed due to the incident. “Now that my four chest ribs are broken, I don’t think I will be able to undertake that journey, I will be going back to work,” he added.
Earlier, BTP confirmed that prominent Bokhari was not the target of any ‘murder attempt’ after he was admitted to St Mary’s Hospital after being injured on May 1.
The Pakistani media had claimed that the BTP had undertaken the April 27 incident at Marble Arch involving Bokhari as an ‘attempted murder’, however, the news was denied by a BTP spokesman.
The British police informed a local news channel that they have no record of Bokhari being in any life-threatening situations. They further explained that it was leading industrialist Sir Robert Malpas, 90, who was allegedly pushed in front of a train by another man on the night of April 27. He was luckily saved by saved by a heroic bystander —Riyad El-Hassani, 24.
On the night of May 1, Bokhari along with his wife and daughter had dinner with his friend and renown lawyer Barrister Iftikhar Ahmed at his North London home. Former Pakistan army major-turned-lawyer, Ahmed also confirmed to a local news channel that he received a call from Bokhari’s wife an hour after the family had left. She had informed him that her husband had ‘passed out’ at the Marble Arch station. An ambulance was subsequently called and Bokhari was rushed to the hospital.
The BTP spokesman further informed that the culprit behind Sir Malpas had been arrested with the help of CCTV cameras.
The media reported that Bokhari was brought to the hospital with “highly critical injuries and was immediately admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)” but was shifted to a general ward after 24 hours of being under observation and is likely to be discharged on Tuesday.
The PTI leader also maintained that his injuries were caused after he tripped at London’s underground platform station as earlier stated by PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry on May 2.
“I fainted and suffered a collapse at an underground station in London,” Bokhari said. He further explained, “My wife and daughter were with me when I fell flat on my face and suffered injuries.”
On the other hand, a flood of rumours on social media had claimed that Bokhari was assaulted and beaten up, leading to the publication of fake news in regard to the incident to circulate all over the country.
