KARACHI: Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan died in Rawalpindi yesterday ... [Oct 16] afternoon, shortly after being shot at twice from close range by an unidentified assailant while addressing a public meeting at company gardens. The Prime Minister had risen to address the mammoth gathering and had hardly begun with `Bradaran-iIslam` when at approximately 4-20 p.m. the assassin shot him twice with a revolver. He is believed to have been struck in the chest in the region of the heart and fell bleeding.

According to a local photographer who was one of the few persons nearby, he had the `Kalima` on his lips.

According to the APP Rawalpindi correspondent who was an eyewitness ... the assailant had hardly fired on the Prime Minister when he was `at once swooped on and torn to pieces by the furious mob`. The Prime Minister was unconscious when he was rushed by car to the Combined Military Hospital where he was given a blood transfusion and attempts were made to remove the bullets.

But he succumbed to his injuries. Three R PAF planes flew out from Karachi last evening to Rawalpindi to bring the Prime Minister`s body to the Federal Capital for burial.