KARACHI: Senior journalist and GeoNews anchorperson Hamid Mir endorsed on Thursday his brother’s statement issued soon after the armed attack on him near Karachi airport on April 19 and said he felt more danger from the country’s premier intelligence agency than anyone else.

“I dread ISI the most,” Mir said in a statement after regaining consciousness at the Aga Khan University Hospital after a successful surgery. He said threats to his family had become more serious now and warned that if anything happened to his family, state elements and the government would be held responsible.

The statement was read out by his brother and journalist Amir Mir before the media at the hospital.

Hamid Mir said the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was “intensely angry” with him after his coverage of Mama Qadeer Baloch’s long march over missing persons in his Capital Talk show. It was also unhappy about his opposition to the role of secret agencies in political affairs. “I am bringing this statement to the notice of the public despite all pressures and threats,” he added.

Hamid Mir said that before the attack he had informed the Geo management, his family and close friends about threats to his life and who could be held responsible for it. “I have been facing threats from state and non-state elements.”

He said that a few days ago some intelligence officials had met him at his residence and told him that they had a hit-list containing the names of journalists, including him. They refused to share details with him.

“I have made it clear to the people concerned that I have been facing threats and state institutions tend to issue threats to people by using the names of non-state elements,” he said, adding that he had informed them that “I am feeling more threatened from ISI”. Praising the sacrifices rendered by soldiers, Hamid Mir said: “It doesn’t mean silence should be observed about the role of army in political affairs.” He said he believed that no institution or individual was above the constitution and law.

He also recalled some perceived attempts on his life and his family, wondering why the people who had planted a bomb under his car in November 2012 in Islamabad had not been exposed, although the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for it.

He said he had also given phone numbers of the people who had threatened him, but Islamabad police were reluctant to pursue the case. Why no action had been taken when his children were attacked, he asked.

“I will provide more details about the background to all these incidents. I am fighting the same fight which my late father Professor Waris Mir had fought. This is a fight for survival and integrity of the country, democratic stability, freedom, rights of small provinces and the poor,” he declared.

He vowed to continue this struggle along with people, media, civil society and political parties.

Hamid Mir condemned the suspension of Geo TV’s transmissions and recalled that the channel had foiled such action during the Musharraf regime.

Earlier, Amir Mir said that his brother had also recorded another statement which had been given to a joint team investigating the attack on him.

Amir said a “sacred cow” had punished in the name of “national interest” the people who spoke truth and the attack on his brother was a continuation of the same trend. In fact, he added, by attacking a journalist of such stature, a message had been given to all journalists.