A
deplorable act
Muhammad
Jamil
Unknown gunmen on motorcycles opened
fire on prominent anchorperson Hamid Mir on Sharae Faisal in Karachi on
Saturday, injuring him seriously. Following a surgery lasting two-and-a-half
hours, hospital administration said the journalist\'s condition was stable, but
he would be kept under observation. Speaking to the private channel, his
brother Amer Mir said his brother had visited him and informed him, of what he
called, a plan hatched by Lt-General Zaheer-ul-Islam to assassinate him. Meanwhile,
a spokesman for the ISPR condemned the attack on Hamid Mir, and said an
independent inquiry must be carried out to ascertain facts behind the attack.
\"However raising allegations against the ISI or the head of ISI without
any basis is highly regrettable and misleading,\" he added. One may not
agree with the views of senior anchorperson, yet attempt on his life is
condemnable. Hamid Mir and his family members are in grief, and in this state
of mind they can say many things, but the TV channel should not have used the
occasion to disgrace the intelligence agencies of Pakistan. In fact, it has
provided the arsenal to Indian and international media to denigrate the ISI.
There is almost consensus among the journalists, excepting those working for
the said media house, that the way this TV channel has highlighted accusations
against the ISI is also condemnable.
Geo News reported that Hamid Mir had
also sent a recorded video to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
implicating the ISI in any attempt on his life. And he had also shared his
statement about his possible attackers with a few army men and others. In
November 2012, Hamid Mir had narrowly escaped a bid on his life when an
explosive device was planted under the chassis of his car. According to another
report, Hamid Mir was criticised by the Pakistani Taliban for his remarks
during a program regarding attack on Malala Yousafzai. The Tehreek-i-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP) had accepted responsibility for the attempt and said it was
targeting the journalist due to his acerbic remarks against militants. These
are the hazards of this profession; however, one should tread the \'minefield\'
carefully. On TV talk shows, the media persons, analysts and panelists have
condemned attack on him. Some of them are of the view that since he had often
talked about the threats from the agencies, some non-state actors could have
taken advantage of the situation. In the past, there was a lot of confusion
when Shahzad Salim was attacked and killed because he had written many articles
discussing the differences between the TTP and its affiliated groups. He often
talked about threats from militants and intelligence agencies, which made job
of investigators difficult.
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