Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was in stable condition after he was shot in the foot at a political rally on Thursday in what the country’s president called “a heinous assassination attempt”.

Khan has been leading a march from the city of Lahore towards the capital Islamabad since Friday, campaigning for snap elections after being ousted from office in April.

Khan was wounded when shots were fired from the crowd near Gujranwala, his senior adviser Raoof Hasan told AFP.

“This was an attempt to kill him, to murder him,” Hasan said, adding that a suspected attacker was shot dead and a second was taken into police custody.

Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi also called it “a heinous attempted assassination” in a tweet.

“Thank Allah he is safe but injured with a few bullets in his leg and hopefully uncritical,” he tweeted.

Pakistan has been fighting Islamist militants for decades, and politicians are often the target of assassination attempts.

In 2007, the nation’s first female leader, Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a suicide bombing that remains unsolved.

Each day during his so-called “Long March,” the 70-year-old Khan boarded a shipping container pulled by a truck, addressing thousands of people in towns and cities along the way.

The former international cricket star was ousted from office by a no-confidence vote in April after some of his coalition partners defected, but he retains mass public support in the South Asian country.

Khan was elected to power in 2018 on an anti-corruption platform by an electorate weary of dynastic politics.

But his mishandling of the economy – and falling out with a military man accused of aiding his rise – sealed his fate.

He has since railed against the establishment and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government, which was imposed on Pakistan by a “conspiracy” involving the United States.

Khan has repeatedly told his supporters he is ready to die for the country, and aid workers have long warned of unspecified threats to his life.