LONDON: The British Transport Police (BTP) have said that no “murder attempt” was made on prominent Pakistani lawyer Naeem Bukhari who remains admitted at St Mary’s Hospital after sustaining injuries on the night of May 1.
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 Geo News over the phone that the police have no record of Bukhari being attacked for his life.
The police clarified that the victim attacked on the night of April 27 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 BTP spokesman said with the help of CCTV cameras, it has already arrested and charged a man in connection with the murder attempt on Sir Malpas.
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”, as stated in some Pakistani media reports.
Bukhari had dinner with his friend and noted lawyer Barrister Iftikhar Ahmed at his North London home on the night of May 1. Ahmed, the former Pakistan army major-turned-lawyer who shifted to London after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s hanging, told Geo 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.
