Senior Pakistan TV anchor escapes car bomb plot

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - A high-profile Pakistani journalist and television anchor escaped an assassination bid on Monday when police defused a bomb planted under his car in Islamabad, police and his channel said.

Mr Hamid Mir, who hosts the Capital Talk evening show on Geo television and writes a column for the biggest-selling newspaper Jang, was criticised by the Taleban last month in the wake of the shooting of teenage activist Malala Yousafzai.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the device was found stuck under the front passenger seat of his car, police said.

"There was half a kilo of explosives fitted with a detonator," city police chief Bani Amin told Geo, saying that officers had defused the bomb and were gathering evidence.