A senior police official negotiates with a gunman in Islamabad on August 15, 2013.
Pakistani police have shot and critically injured a heavily armed man in the capital Islamabad after a long standoff broadcast live on television.
Police shot the man, inedited as Mohammad Sikandar, in the leg and stomach on Thursday night after a nearly six-hour armed standoff in the heart of Islamabad.
Sikandar, who was armed with a pair of assault rifles and was accompanied by his wife and two minor children, appeared to have mental problems.
The standoff began when traffic police stopped the man as he was driving his black Toyota car the wrong way down Jinnah Avenue, a central thoroughfare leading to the parliament, Islamabad police official Ahmad Naeem said.
He smashed his car into a security barrier, argued with police officers and started firing in the air, Naeem added.
According to Islamabad police chief Sikandar Hayat, the gunman, who was from the town of Hafizabad in Punjab province, seemed mentally deranged.
The police chief said the gunman was confused in his demands.
He demanded the government resign and new elections be held under Islamic law, said Hayat.
“I am against vulgarity and immorality. My associates have taken up positions in the whole of Pakistan,” the gunman told a local TV channel. He also made various other incoherent demands.
Finally, former Pakistani MP Zamurd Khan went out to negotiate with the gunman. As Khan was introducing himself to Sikandar’s children, he assaulted the gunman to try to overpower him. Sikandar jumped back and fired shots. Khan threw himself between the gunman and his children to protect them from the fire. Khan was injured but his condition is out of danger.
Police shooters fired at the gunman and he fell face first onto the street. Sikandar was rushed to hospital where he is in critical condition.
GJH/MHB
Republished from: Press TV