AFP/Islamabad
Unknown gunmen on motorbikes opened fire at a prominent Pakistani television anchor on a busy road in the southern port city of Karachi yesterday, 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 Mohamed Shah said.
“Four gunmen riding on motorbikes started firing at the car near Karsaz (around 6km 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 thousands of people in the restive southwestern province of 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 yesterday.
“Hamid Mir has received three bullets but the doctors told me that he is out of danger,” Hayat said.
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 said.
“He has been shot thrice, in the pelvic, abdomen and thighs,” he added. Mir, who hosts the longest running talk-show on Geo News, had complained of receiving death threats from the country’s powerful intelligence agency.
A Pakistani policeman points to a bullet hole on a car door following an attack on prominent journalist Hamid Mir in Karachi yesterday.
