Senior journalists share attacker’s details before being aired on TV channels

Some senior journalists shared the attacker’s details in their Twitter messages before the identification was aired on TV channels after the assassination attempt on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan.

Surprisingly, Gharidah Farooqi, Hamid Mir, Waqar Satti and Murtaza Solangi tweeted the name of the attacker before being aired on TV channels. Anchorperson Saleem Safi shared the condemnation message of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) at 1:49 pm.

Senior journalist Hamid Mir was the first person who shared the details of the attacker in his tweet at 5:22 pm. He said that the suspect was arrested with 9 mm pistol and 2 empty magazines whose name is Muhammad Naveed s/o Muhammad Bashir, caste is Arain and he is the resident of Wazirabad’s Sodhra area.

After Hamid Mir, Waqar Satti, Muneeb Farooq and Gharidah Farooqi also shared the same details on their Twitter handles, but Gharidah Farooqi and Waqar Satti described the accused as the bodyguard of PTI Member of National Assembly (MNA) Alamgir Khan.

Social media users and analysts have raised the question that when the accused was in the custody of the Punjab Police, who sent this information to all the journalists together and which force wanted to spoil the sensitive case?

On the other hand, Geo News anchorperson Saleem Safi tweeted the screenshot of ISPR’s condemnation statement in such a hurry that he forgot to remove the time on it.

Interestingly, the attack on Imran Khan took place at around 4:20 pm, while the time of 1:48 pm is recorded in the statement of condemnation of ISPR shared by Saleem Safi in his tweet.

Later, Salim Safi explained that he is spending his annual leaves in a country whose time difference is five hours from Pakistan time.