Exposed: ‘Ex-Indian FM seeks security for Hamid Mir’
According to The News, Yashwant Sinha wrote a letter to PM Nawaz.
According to The News, Sinha also described as a “vindictive and retrograde step” the decision by the ISI and Pak Defence Ministry to withdraw Geo TV’s licence. PHOTO: INP/FILE
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Indian external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha has urged the Pakistan government to provide full protection to Geo TV senior anchor Hamid Mir, according to a report printed in The News, the English-language daily of the Jang/Geo Group.
Mir was injured in a gun attack in Karachi on April 19. Soon after the attack, Geo TV ran a marathon transmission in which Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and its chief were blamed for the attack.
“It would be unfortunate if any harm comes to Hamid Mir or Geo TV on your watch,” Sinha said in a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, The News reported quoting Times of India newspaper. Describing Mir as a ‘fair and fearless journalist’, Sinha said he was at the “forefront of the revival of courageous journalism in Pakistan.” “Hamid Mir has alleged he was under threat both from the state and non-state actors and that elements in ISI may have had a hand in this attack.”
According to The News, Sinha also described as a “vindictive and retrograde step” the decision by the ISI and Pak Defence Ministry to withdraw Geo TV’s licence.
The report says that on Thursday Mir issued his first statement after the attack, saying, “I had been facing threats from both state and non-state actors, but some developments in the recent past convinced me to inform my colleagues about the elements who could most likely try to kill me.”
He went on to allege that the ISI was angry because of his coverage of Balochistan issue and the criticism of the intelligence agency. “State agencies often use the name of non-state actors to threaten journalists so as to prevent them from speaking or writing the truth,” his statement said. Sinha’s letter is likely to fan flames of conspiracy in Pakistan.
Just this week, another Pakistani journalist, Imtiaz Alam, quit his TV show and splashed his resignation letter in Jang, a Geo publication, according to the report. Alam also shared his resignation letter with an Indian newspaper, for which he was accused of conniving with the Indians.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 30th, 2014.