Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister (CM) Sohail Afridi has claimed an armed man was sent to assassinate him during his Punjab tour, but Gujranwala police said the person detained by his security team was actually a police officer in plain clothes deployed for security duty.

As per the details, CM Afridi made the allegation in a video statement on Wednesday, saying the man had been sent with the “intention of killing him”.

He said his security team intercepted the man after travelling from Sialkot to Wazirabad and recovered a pistol from him. “A pistol was recovered from the person who was caught, and he was handed over to the local police.”

However, Gujranwala police rejected the CM’s account, saying the detained man was a police official assigned to security duty.

The police said the officer had shown his police card but was nevertheless detained and subjected to violence.

According to police, the constable was assaulted in the presence of the Station House Officer (SHO) of City Wazirabad police station.

The SHO intervened and rescued the officer, the police statement said.

Gujranwala police condemned the description of a police official deployed for security as a “killer”.

Earlier, CM Afridi also alleged that electricity at the house where he stayed in Sialkot “was cut off and its generator damaged”.

He said that after he moved to Umar Dar’s house, the electricity was “again cut off and the generator there was damaged too”.

It may be noted that the KP CM spent Tuesday in Lahore, visiting different areas as part of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) street movement in Punjab.

The PTI has announced nationwide protests and a long march towards Islamabad on September 27, seeking the release of party founder Imran Khan from jail.

Afridi’s latest allegation come two days after he claimed he had been “abducted” by authorities in Lahore and later left by the roadside without security.

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari rejected that claim, saying Afridi had entered a Punjab Police vehicle voluntarily and refused to get out when asked.