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During a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, US presidential candidate Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on Saturday. Such incidents are not uncommon in global politics. Here’s a list of historical political assassination attempts worldwide:
United States:
- Andrew Jackson — 1835: The seventh US president, Andrew Jackson, was attacked in 1835 by Richard Lawrence outside the Capitol Building, but both of his pistols misfired.
- Abraham Lincoln — 1865: Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while attending a performance at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. He had previously escaped an assassination attempt in 1864.
- James A. Garfield — 1881: Charles Guiteau, a frustrated office seeker, attacked James A. Garfield twice in 1881 at a train station in Washington, DC. Garfield was fatally wounded and died months later.
- William McKinley — 1901: William McKinley was shot by an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz during a public event in Buffalo, New York, in 1901.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt — 1933: Italian immigrant Giuseppe Zangara fired shots at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s car but missed.
- Harry S. Truman — 1950: Two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman in 1950.
- John F. Kennedy — 1963: John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in 1963.
- Gerald Ford — 1975: President Gerald Ford faced two assassination attempts in 1975 by women.
- Ronald Reagan — 1981: Ronald Reagan was wounded outside a Washington hotel by John Hinckley Jr.
- Bill Clinton — 1994: In 1994, Francisco Martin Duran fired shots at the White House while Bill Clinton was inside.
- George W. Bush — 2005: During a speech in Tbilisi, Georgia, a grenade was thrown at George W. Bush, but it failed to explode.
Pakistan:
- 16 October 1951: Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, was shot dead during a public rally in Rawalpindi.
- 27 December 2007: Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister, was assassinated in Rawalpindi after an election rally.
- 17 May 1988: Zia ul Haq, former President and Chief of Army Staff, died in a mysterious plane crash along with several high-ranking military officials.
- 20 December 2007: Bashir Ahmed Bilour, Senior Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was killed in a suicide bombing claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
- 2 November 2018: Maulana Samiul Haq, known as the “Father of Taliban,” was assassinated at his residence in Rawalpindi.
- 16 May 2019: Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi, a political figure and brother of former Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, was assassinated in Lahore.
- · 12 May 1958: Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan, popularly known as Dr. Khan Sahib, a prominent figure in the Indian Independence Movement and Pakistani politics, was assassinated by a former revenue official in Lahore.
- Many Pakistani leaders and politicians including Imran Khan and Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped assassination attempts.
Saudi Arabia:
- 25 March 1975: King Faisal was assassinated by his nephew.
India:
- 30 January 1948: Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian Independence Movement, was assassinated by Nathuram Godse.
- 31 October 1984: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, in retaliation for ordering Operation Blue Star.
- 21 May 1991: Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber associated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during an election campaign in Tamil Nadu.
