PESHAWAR: Senior journalist Hamid Mir, who is recovering from multiple bullet wounds after surviving an assassination bid, made a categorical pledge on Monday that there would be no compromise on freedom of press.

Mir was speaking via telephone at a progamme organized as part of ‘Hamid Mir Week’ jointly by Khyber Union of Jouranalists and Peshawar Press Club.

Representatives of various journalists’ bodies, civil society, religio-political parties besides tribal leaders and others turned up in big numbers to participate in the programme.

Thanking the attendees, Hamid Mir termed the April 19 attack on him in Karachi as an assault on freedom of press. “Geo/Jang Group is being victimized under a conspiracy,” he said, adding a similar attempt to muzzle the media was also made in 2007.

“Even if I have to come out against this (conspiracy) on a wheel char, I wouldn’t hesitate to do so,” vowed the severely wounded man of pen.

He also expressed his apprehension over the devious schemes of pitching the local media houses against one another.

“Today Geo is being shut in a bid to hush up the media, tomorrow it will be some other channel,” Hamid Mir warned.

Hamid Mir was shot six times by unknown assailants while en route to Geo’s studio in Karachi on April 19, suffering critical wounds. The attackers remain at large as Hamid Mir gradually recovers from the life-threatening injuries.