grandfather was Mir Abdul Aziz from Sialkot. Mir's father, Waris Mir, was also a columnist for Daily Jang and Mir's mother was Mumtaz Mir, who migrated to Pakistan from Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India in 1947. His father died on 9 July 1987 in Lahore and his mother has died in 1993. Hamid Mir studied at Government College University and University of Punjab. Mir is married to Naheed Hamid, who worked with Pakistan television and for a private television channel for many years. The couple has two children. His two children and wife spent sometime outside of the country because of security issues in 2007. Journalistic career Daily Jang Mir joined the Daily Jang (Lahore) in 1987 and worked there as sub-editor, reporter, feature writer and edition in charge. In 1990, Mir was abducted, beaten and driven to a house where his captors demanded to know his source for the critical story he wrote when then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan was planning to dismiss the Bhutto government. In 1994, he broke the submarines purchase scandal. Some close friends of Asif Zardari (husband of then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto) were involved in that scandal, along with some Navy officials. Mir lost his job from daily Jang the day his article was published. Daily Pakistan In 1996, Mir became the editor of the Daily Pakistan in Islamabad, making him the youngest editor of any national Urdu newspaper in the history of Pakistani journalism. He lost his job again in 1997, when he wrote an article in the Daily Pakistan about the alleged corruption of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Also on 25 December 1997, he launched Daily Ausaf (Islamabad) as founding editor. Mir was the first Pakistani journalist to interview Osama bin Laden. He first interviewed Bin Laden for the Daily Pakistan in March 1997, in a cave of Tora Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan. Mir interviewed Bin Laden for the second time for Ausaf in May 1998, in a hideout near the Kandahar International Airport. Mir was the first and the last journalist to interview Bin Laden after the September 11 attacks. He interviewed Bin Laden for the third time for Dawn and Ausaf on 8 November 2001, at an undisclosed location near Kabul. Mir went to eastern Afghanistan, where he investigated the escape of Osama bin Laden from Tora Bora mountains in December 2001. Mir visited the caves of bin Laden,