Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Wednesday that it was falsely claimed after the Bondi Beach shooting in Australia that one of the attackers was from Pakistan, holding “hostile countries” responsible for this campaign.
The tragic attack by two men on Sunday resulted in the death of 16 people, including one of the attackers. Soon after the incident, a Pakistan-origin man living in Sydney was misidentified as one of the attackers. Later, it was confirmed that among the father-son duo of suspects, the former, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, was from India and the latter, 24-year-old Naveed Akram, was born in Australia.
“When the incident happened, certain media outlets were very quick to state that one of the attackers was from Pakistan and the other one was born in Australia.
“There was no evidence to prove this claim, there was no documentation, and there was no verification of this claim. But somehow, we know that this campaign was launched from hostile countries trying to malign Pakistan,” Tarar said during a media briefing in Islamabad.
The minister continued, “In Israel and India, this campaign was proliferated and posted on social media platforms, as well as electronic media platforms, which is very, very sad.”
He highlighted that Pakistan had been a frontline state in the war against terrorism and continued to combat terrorists. Here, he also mentioned the Army Public School massacre that took place on December 16, 2014.
A total of 147 people, including 132 students, were martyred and 180 were injured in the attack.
“So, we are a country whose children have also given sacrifices, whose children have laid down their lives in this war against terrorism,” Tarar said, adding that it was unfortunate that a “false campaign” was run again Pakistan.
He reiterated that there was not even a shred of evidence or any reliable source to back the claim that one of the Bondi Beach attackers was from Pakistan.
Tarar further stated that the “misinformation campaign” against Pakistan was run deliberately, adding that it saddened him that very well-reputed media outlets fell prey to this “disinformation campaign”.
The minister said that these media houses and outlets, operating globally, had editorial boards and systems in place to verify information.
“There are structures, there is a hierarchy through which information is passed on, and editorial control is exercised. Even then, they failed to exercise the basic norms of journalism,” he said, reiteraring that it was falsely claimed that one of the attackers was from Pakistan.
The claim, he said, was refuted as Indian police issued a press release on Tuesday stating that one of the suspects was from Hyderabad in India. He added that it had also been confirmed that the Indian embassy in Sydney had issued the suspect his passport.
“In fact, he travelled to the Phillipines on that Indian passport as confirmed by the Philippines authorities,” Tarar said. “So, I don’t know why this campaign was run. But, it is very, very unfortunate.”
The minister then played a video that he said detailed how the campaign was run and which media outlets were involved in it.
After the video ended, the minister said the campaign seemed to be an organised one. “It spread like wildfire, and no editorial board, no management, no reporter questioned where the information was coming from.”
He went on to say that one of the news outlets had gone as far as claiming that the attackers were from Lahore, without showing any documentation.
“How is it possible that when you give news with regard to a terrorism incident, and you claim that the attackers are from a certain country or are of a certain origin, you have no evidence whatsoever to substantiate your claim?
“It really saddens us as victims of terrorism.”
He said Pakistan had always and would always condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
Tarar pointed out that Pakistan did not instantly react to the false claim as “a responsible state acts like a responsible state by actually verifying information”.
He also questioned how was it possible that the Indian government did not know that the suspects were of “Indian origin or had Indian passports or were Indian citizens”.
“Every country has a national database through which,[using] facial recognition, it can be easily identified to which country a certain individual belongs. There are retinal scan, there are fingerprints, there is facial recognition — there is so much technology in the world now that any database would have revealed where they were from.
“But unfortunately, there was a vicious campaign to instantly say that one of the attackers, the father, was a Pakistani national,” Tarar added.
The minister linked the occurrence also to the suspects having a name that “is common in certain parts of the world”.
He said it was not sufficient evidence to pin the blame on Pakistan.
Tarar also appreciated Australian authorities for “conducting themselves very professionally throughout the investigation. Despite the vicious campaign which was run all over the international media, they did not cast any aspersions in this regard, and they actually waited for this information to be verified”.
Saying that now that it was clear that the suspect was from India, Tarar added, “My question is, and I have the right to question, that who is going to cover the damage that was caused to Pakistan through these fake posts and false information.
“How do we go back to the position before the Bondi Beach attack? Should we initiate legal proceedings? Should we request an apology? Or will it just become a part of history as a campaign based on absolutely fake and false information to malign Pakistan?”
He said acts of terrorism had been taking place elsewhere in the world as well, recalling the murder and assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.
“We have seen transnational assassinations taking place. We have seen this incident,” he continued, adding, “We know that India supports terrorism in Pakistan.”
The minister said the Inter-Service Public Relations director general and he himself had shared evidence of terrorism in Balochistan and Kyber Pakhtunkhwa being backed and funded by Pakistan.
“There is irrefutable evidence to prove that.”
In addition, he said, “Whenever Afghan soil is used for an attack in Pakistan, somewhere there is an indian link.”
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