ISI-Geo TV Contra: Hamid Mir gives “Clean Chit to ISI” or keeps tricks in his pocket?
Islamabad: First Information Report (FIR) registered by Karachi police was registered against “unknown attackers” in the case of attacking anchorperson of Geo television Hamid Mir. FIR was registered by the police after five days of this incident as family and organization of injured refrained from submitting any application to police for the registration of the case.
Now injured anchorperson Hamid Mir had given his statement to Karachi police. In this statement, Hamid Mir narrated the incident how he went out of airport and how he was attacked etc etc. There is no doubt that in a media statement issued by Hamid Mir and read by his brother Amir Mir suspected involvement of ISI and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in attacking him. But there is a hell of a difference between a media statement and a legal statement recorded by the Police. This is a criminal case and criminal cases are not moved by political statements rather by interrogations, facts and given evidences and circumstantial evidences.
In his statement, Hamid said that he had not seen attackers. He saw only a pistol at right side of his body firing at him. He did not show any doubt to anybody for attacking him. He did not mention any person, institution whatsoever as “suspect” in attacking him.
In medico legal case/crime case, there are three very basic and important points that builds any case. These are— FIR, statement of relatives (in case of victim is dead), first statement of injured victim to police and medical legal report of the case. In any statement where no suspect is mentioned by the victim is a heavy burden on police to trace responsible attackers through investigation that cover all aspects and possibilities provided by the circumstances. Police have every right under Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) to interrogate victim, any of his family member, friends, colleagues, people who were with him during the crime event and just before crime event took place etc etc.
Hamid Mir is a seasoned journalist and a wonderful experienced reporter who covered crime beat, court reporting and political reporting and he knows the importance of first statement of victim to the police and text of an FIR. There is an important question in the mind of many following this case that why Hamid did not mention any individual, organization or group in his statement? This question has many answers but one answer is simple to understand. If a victim suspects any individual, organization or group, victims provides substantial evidences and reasons for attacking him by those he is suspecting. If a victim leaves his statement open than it becomes responsibility of the Police to find suspects through its own investigation, interrogation and from leads provided by the victim.
In this case, if Police and Joint Investigation Team (JIT) do not cover the aspect of involvement of ISI in this attack, Hamid will have right to raise his suspects anytime during the investigations or even during the proceedings of the case. So—he will have a right to implicate ISI anytime of his choice. He will have a right to implicate anybody during the investigation or during the proceedings of the case that he gets some information, clues, leads and credible indicators leading to involvement of ISI etc etc
“Professionally and legally, Jang Group of Publication has insufficient and inadequate reasons and logic to continue blaming ISI or its Chief in this case. If Geo Television and Jang Group continue blaming ISI for attacking Hamid Mir, than majority of viewers and readers will have more justification to believe that this is a media trial of ISI”, commented a senior civil bureaucrat who usually supports aggressive stance of Geo against institutions.
