Geo TV anchor Hamid Mir to get security

Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir will be provided security after he received threats, said Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Geo TV anchor Hamid Mir said on Thursday that he received threatening messages after his talk show criticised the security establishment.Mir stated publicly that if anything happened to him, the security establishment would be responsible.Malik strongly condemned the threatening messages and said the government would ensure full protection and security to Hamid Mir and the journalists’ community.“The government has taken strong notice of this issue and (a) deputy superintendent of police has been deputed for Hamid Mir’s security,” Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Malik as saying. He said a parliamentarians’ committee has been constituted to probe the issue. An opposition leader will lead the committee, he said, adding the government will provide all possible assistance in this regard.President Asif Ali Zardari too ordered an investigation into the threats received by Mir.Mir also sent his message to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York which quickly issued a blog condemning the threat and accused the Pakistani government of not doing anything about similar threats to journalists in the past. Pakistan has seen journalists being killed in the past.Munir Ahmed Shahkir, a senior journalist with the Waqt News newspaper, was shot several times and rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries on Aug.14.On Aug.10, a journalist was manhandled for exposing malpractices at a premier hospital in Karachi. Journalist Saleem Shahzad, 40, was kidnapped in Islamabad May 29.