EXCLUSIVE: British Transport Police says no ‘murder attempt’ on PTI leader Naeem Bukhari

LONDON: The British Transport Police (BTP) have said that no “murder attempt” was made on prominent Pakistani lawyer Naeem Bukhari who remains admitted in St Mary’s Hospital after sustaining injuries on the night of 1st May.

Reports in Pakistani media claimed that the BTP are treating the April 27 incident at Marble Arch involving Naeem Bukhari as “attempted murder” but a spokesman of the police told The News over the phone that the Police has no record of Naeem Bukhari being attacked for his life.

The police clarified that the victim attacked on the night of 27th April was leading industrialist Sir Robert Malpas, 90, who was allegedly pushed in front of a train by another man. The former Eurotunnel chairman was saved by a heroic bystander Riyad El-Hassani, 24.

The British Transport Police spokesman said that with help from the CCTV cameras it has already arrested and charged a man in connection with murder attempt on Sir Malpas. The BTP said that Paul William Crossley, of Leyton High Road, London, has been charged with attempted murder on the life of Sir Mapls, he appeared before the Westminster Magistrates Court on 30th April and has been remanded into custody.

Crossley will appear again at Blackfriars Crown Court on May 29.

The spokesman said that it appealed to members of the public for information and didn’t say at any stage that it was looking for anyone of “Asian descent”.

Naeem Bukhari had dinner with his friend and noted lawyer Barrister Iftikhar Ahmed at his North London home on the night of 1st May. Ahmed, the former Pakistan army major-turned-lawyer who shifted to London after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s hanging, told The News that he received a call from Bukhari’s wife an hour after the couple left their home that he has “passed out” at the Marble Arch station. He said the ambulance was called and Bukhari was taken to the hospital.

A spokesman of the London Ambulance Services corroborated the version of Barrister Iftikhar Ahmed and confirmed they treated “a man at the Marble Arch station who had sustained injuries” and was found to be in “critical situation”. The spokesman said that they took the injured man to the nearby St Mary’s Hospital for urgent treatment.

A source at the St Mary’s Hospital told that Naeem Bukhari was brought to the hospital with “highly critical injuries and was immediately admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)” and discharged to a general ward for care once he was “out of danger” after about 24 hours. The hospital source confirmed that Bukhari had sustained multiple injuries.

The hospital source added that Naeem Bukhari is likely to be discharged on Tuesday.

A spokesman of Scotland Yard said that it didn’t deal with the matter of Naeem Bukhari or the industrial who was attacked. “London Underground is dealt by the British Transport Police and officers of the BTP led the investigations”.

Various rumours have flooded social media making claims that Bukhai was assaulted and beaten up, leading to publication of lots of fake news.