KARACHI - Senior journalist Hamid Mir who was wounded after being targeted in Karachi still holds the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) responsible for orchestrating the attack.
This was conveyed on Thursday by his brother Amir Mir while speaking to media persons outside Aga Khan Hospital where the wounded journalist is being treated. It was the first formal statement of Hamid Mir after regaining consciousness.
Amir Mir also stuck a further defiant tone, stating that Geo TV network and his brother had faced the similar circumstances when former military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf had imposed an emergency in the country and shut down TV channels in 2007.
“The journalist is defiant in countering all efforts of suspending Geo TV’s transmissions,” Amir said.
Amir said the senior anchorperson had informed some intelligence officials visiting his residence a few days ago about the threat he was facing from the ISI. He said his brother was aware of the agency’s method of threatening journalists and media houses for ‘biased’ reporting of certain national issues.
Mir said the agency was angry with Hamid Mir over his criticism at different shows. The senior journalist was concerned at the government’s failure to hand over a written proof of ISI’s threat to his life, said his brother, adding it was also a matter of concern for him that those planting a bomb underneath his car in November 2012 were not exposed even though TTP had accepted responsibility for that.
He said Hamir Mir had vowed to foil all these conspiracies being orchestrated against him and his family members at an appropriate time.
“His fight is for sovereignty and security of Pakistan, restoration of peace, eradication of terrorism, rule of law and freedom of speech which cannot be suppressed,” said Amir Mir, Hamid Mir’s brother.
“No individual or institution is above the law to Hamid,” he said, adding covering up armed forces and its agencies’ role in politics was a criminal silence. Hamid Mir condemned the government and other state institutions’ efforts for suspending Geo TV’s transmissions, Mir concluded.