Hamid Mir reveals threats, blames security establishment | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Hamid Mir reveals threats, blames security establishment

ISLAMABAD: Senior Geo TV anchor Hamid Mir on Wednesday revealed he had received seriously threatening messages after his talk show criticising the security establishment and stated publicly that if anything happened to him, the security establishment would be responsible.

Mir also sent his message to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York which quickly issued a blog condemning the threat and complaining that the Government of Pakistan had not done anything about similar threats to journalists in the past.

In his email, Hamid Mir stated: “Dear friends, I would like to inform you that I received an SMS message at my Blackberry today at 11:47pm which said ‘I have not seen a real bastard than you. I wish somebody comes and strip you naked. I hope some army man has not done real dirty with your dear ones.’ This SMS was reaction of my show Capital Talk which was going on at that time on Geo TV in a repeat telecast.

“I responded to this SMS and I got another message from the same number again (0333-5245252). Within few seconds another SMS from 0331-8175319 declared me a CIA, RAW and Mossad agent. I have received these kinds of threatening messages usually from intelligence agencies in the past. When I responded these messages quickly and told them to go court against me they were silent.

“These recent threats are related to two recent shows on Geo TV. I discussed a story in The Independent in the UK reported by Omar Warraich on December 14th and raised questions about the political role of DG ISI (Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate Ahmad Shuja Pasha). A constitutional petition was filed by (Communist Party Chairman) Engineer Jamil Malik on December 19th in the Supreme Court of Pakistan (asking the court to remove Gen Pasha) and I was included in the petition as one of the respondents. I came to know about this petition in the evening of December 19th. The same evening I discussed the press conference of Baloch leader Attaullah Mengal on my TV show. Mengal criticised Pakistan Army atrocities against Balochis. This show was aired in the evening of December 19th and repeated in the morning of December 20th between 11 and 12.

“I am sure that security establishment of Pakistan is once again angry with all those who will raise questions about the political role of army. If anything bad happens with me or my ‘dear ones’ the security establishment will be responsible. Hamid Mir.”

Bob Dietz, the CPJ Asia Programme Coordinator, reacting to the Hamid Mir threat, stated: “Geo TV’s most prominent television anchor, and one of the most prominent journalists in Pakistan, has just circulated a detailed email message of threats he has been receiving. Hamid Mir’s open, public response to the threats is a textbook case of how to handle the steady stream of intimidation that journalists face, not just in Pakistan but in other parts of the world as well. His entire message is reproduced at the end of this post.

“There is an additional sense of urgency in this case: Umar Cheema, The News reporter who was abducted and beaten in 2010, and who is no stranger to threats himself, told me in an email: “The reason for taking the latest threat (to Mir) seriously is that I have faced the trouble in same manner, so we suspect the same mastermind.”

“CPJ has written a lot about threats in Pakistan, and their debilitating effect. At this moment CPJ’s Journalists Assistance Programme is working with a few other Pakistani journalists who are under threat for specific reporting, but I do not have their permission to publicise the details of their cases.

“While the threat to Mir appears to be from supporters of the military/security establishment, if not officials within the government itself, threats to journalists come from everywhere. Pakistani reporters are targeted by all sides to the country’s conflicts – religious militants, political factions fighting turf battles in violent cities like Karachi, competing secessionist groups in Balochistan, and all the militarily active parties along the border with Afghanistan, as well as drug runners and gun dealers.

“CPJ today released its list of journalists killed in 2011, and Pakistan tops the list with seven, five of whom died in targeted killings, killed specifically for their work as journalists. Last year, Pakistan shared the dubious distinction of being the world’s worst with eight deaths, but only two of those were targeted deaths; the others came during dangerous assignments. Twenty-nine journalists have been killed in the country in the past five years. There has been near-perfect impunity in the deaths of journalists for almost a decade.

“CPJ met with President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Rehman Malik in May, on World Press Freedom Day. We were promised an active response in dealing with such threats, but in the ensuing months none was forthcoming. It has become clear that Pakistan’s journalists cannot rely on the government for their own protection, and the threats at times even seem to come from the government. While keeping pressure on the government, CPJ has shifted tactics to encouraging the country’s press corps to act assertively in securing their own protection. One of the simplest methods is to do exactly as Hamid Mir has done in this case – make the threat as widely known as possible.”

The threats to Hamid Mir were also condemned by a number of journalists and human rights activists on other blogs and forums on the internet. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) expressed its concern over the threats received by TV anchor and senior journalist Hamid Mir.

Hamid Mir had received messages on his mobile phone in which he was abused and threatened. The PFUJ President Pervaiz Shaukat expressed concern over the threats received by Hamid Mir and demanded of the government to trace the culprits who had threatened him.

He said the journalists’ community would react strongly if any harm is done to Hamid Mir. He demanded of the government to provide necessary protection to the TV anchor. The PFUJ Secretary-General Amin Yousuf demanded of the authorities to investigate the threatening SMS and take strict against those involved in the act.

Source: The News