The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed the responsibility for planting a bomb under the car of Pakistani journalist and TV anchor Hamid Mir and threatened a second assassination bid, local news channel GEO News reported on Tuesday.

However, the government has said that the claim by the TTP was fake and that the "so-called spokesman of the TTP is a fraud."

Interior minister Rehman Malik said that Ehasanullah Ehsan, who made the claim and whom most media houses credit as being the spokesman for the TTP, "is a fraud."  The minister said that Ehsan works for "outside forces" .

Mir, who hosts a prime-time show on Geo television, was criticised by the Taliban last month in the wake of the shooting of teenage activist Malala Yousafzai. Meanwhile, Mir sent out a tweet on Monday saying that Malala called him to express solidarity.