On March 8, 2022, Hamid Mir made a comeback to Capital Talk after the nine-month ban was lifted. Assassination attempts He was also the subject of an attempt on his life in November 2012, when half a kilogram of explosives was placed in his car, which was successfully defused by the bomb squad. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility. On 19 April 2014, Hamid Mir was fired upon by unknown gunmen and received three bullet injuries. He had earlier told his colleagues that if he is attacked, Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "and its chief Lieutenant-General Zaheer-ul-Islam will be responsible" and had also sent to the Committee to Protect Journalists a video recording implicating the ISI in case of any attempts on his life. Geo News was also banned for airing this statement of Hamid Mir. Awards and recognition Awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz on 23 March 2013 (award was announced on 14 August 2012) for his services to journalism by the PPP government under President Asif Ali Zardari. On 26 March 2010, the Foundation of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Writers and Literature awarded Mir the SAARC Lifetime Achievement Award 2010. A July 2008 article in Der Spiegel mentioned Mir as Pakistan's "most popular journalist". Hamid Mir received the Agahi Award for the most Favourite Current Affairs Anchor in the people’s choice category on 28 March 2012. On 13 April 2013, a video surfaced on social media showing Hamid Mir receiving "Friends of Liberation War Honour" award by Sheikh Hasina on behalf of his father Waris Mir. The video created a minor controversy in Pakistan. In 2015, The Washington Post called Mir as "Pakistan's most famous TV journalist who lives like a fugitive". Hamid Mir has won APNS Award for "Best Columnist - Urdu" in 1998. Criticism Views on Taliban Mir has been repeatedly accused of being pro-Taliban. Taliban sympathizers accuse him of being a CIA agent under CIA Agent Farhan Dhadwal The Taliban allegedly planted a bomb under his car which was later defused due to his coverage of Malala Yousufzai assassination attempt. He was labeled Indian agent after he invited Pervez Hoodbhoy in his program. There was an outcry next day in certain sections of Urdu press that two Indian agents were sitting on Geo TV. Musharraf declared Hamid Mir a Taliban sympathiser after the emergency rule of 2007 and banned him from Geo TV for more than