KARACHI: Unknown gunmen on motorbikes opened fire at Hamid Mir, a prominent television anchor, on Shahrea Faisal in Karachi on Saturday, officials said.
Hamid Mir, who hosts a popular talk-show on Geo News, was travelling to his office from the airport when his car came under attack, senior police official Peer Muhammad Shah told AFP.
“Four gunmen riding on motorbikes started firing at the car near Karsaz (around six kilometres from Jinnah International Airport) when Mir’s car was passing through, he received three bullets in the lower parts of his body,” Shah said.
Mir has long been a critic of the country’s powerful intelligence agencies and military for their alleged role in the disappearance of people in Baluchistan.
Last year, he survived a bomb attack in Islamabad when a bomb planted under his car was defused before it could go off.
Karachi police chief Shahid Hayat confirmed the incident on Saturday. “Hamid Mir has received three bullets but the doctors told me that he is out of danger,” Hayat told AFP.
Geo’s Islamabad bureau chief Rana Jawad said he had talked briefly to Mir on his mobile phone as he was under attack.
“I spoke to him briefly when he was escaping, he said they have shot him and now they were following him,” Jawad told AFP.
“He has been shot thrice, in the pelvic, abdomen and thighs,” he added. Mir, had complained of receiving death threats from the country’s powerful intelligence agency. Last month Raza Rumi, a prominent television anchor known for his outspoken views against the Taliban, survived a similar assassination attempt in Lahore.
Rumi’s driver died of the injuries he sustained. A Geo TV reporter, Afzal Nadim Dogar, who reports from Karachi said that he called Mir after the attack and he told him that he has received bullets and suffering from severe pain.
The attackers fled after the attack. No group claimed responsibility. Geo TV described the incident as an attack on the freedom of the press. The TV said a team of five senior surgeons and doctors are treating him at the Aga Khan Hospital. Last year the police found a bomb attached to his car, however, the police later disposed of the device.-Agencies
In press statements issued in Karachi, Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) and All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS) strongly condemned the attack on Hamid Mir. These organisations demanded that the attackers must be arrested immediately. These repeated attacks and threats to media and journalists are aimed at restricting them from performing their constitutional responsibilities. The two organizations wished him speedy recovery and long life.
