Taleban claim bid to kill Pakistan TV anchorman

PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s umbrella Taleban faction claimed responsibility on Tuesday for planting a bomb under the car of a prominent journalist and TV anchorman and threatened a second assassination bid.
Hamid Mir, who hosts prime-time show Capital Talk on Geo television and writes a column for the biggest-selling newspaper Jang, was criticized by the Taleban last month in the wake of the shooting of teenage activist Malala Yousafzai.
“Life and death is in the hands of Allah. Allah saved his life but we will make a similar attempt again,” Tehreek-e-Taleban spokesman Ehsanullah said by telephone from an unknown location.
“Hamid Mir earlier shot into prominence for working in the interest of Islam and Muslims. We targeted him because now he is working against Islam and Muslims,” he said.
Police said the device — half a kilogram of explosives fitted with a detonator — was found stuck under his car in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Monday.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik offered a cash reward of 50 million rupees ($500,000) for anyone with information about who was responsible for the powerful bomb.