ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday criticized India and Israel for running a disinformation campaign to falsely link suspects in a deadly shooting incident on Sydney’s Bondi Beach to Pakistan, saying the allegations were baseless and aimed at maligning the country.
Tarar’s briefing came after a mass shooting on Dec. 14 in which two gunmen opened fire on a crowd, killing 15 people and injuring dozens, in what Australian officials described as a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community. Soon after, media reports claimed the attack was carried out by a father and son named Sajid and Naveed Akram.
Subsequently, Indian news channels and social media accounts started circulating unverified claims the suspects were Pakistanis, amplifying images of a Sydney resident with the same name — Naveed Akram — wearing a Pakistan cricket team shirt, a claim later denied by the man in a video in which he said he feared for his life after receiving threats.
“This campaign was launched from hostile countries trying to malign Pakistan,” Tarar said while briefing foreign journalists in Islamabad. “In Israel, in India, this campaign was proliferated and posted on social media platforms as well as electronic media platforms, which is very, very sad because Pakistan has been a front line state in the war against terrorism.”
He said Pakistan condemned the Sydney attack and expressed solidarity with Australia, noting that it understands the pain of such incidents as a country that has suffered decades of militant violence.
“There was no verification, no documentation, no evidence whatsoever,” he said. “Yet a false campaign was launched, and even reputed media outlets failed to uphold basic journalistic standards.”
He said Indian police later confirmed the father involved in the attack was from India’s Telangana state and that his passport had been issued by the Indian embassy in Sydney, adding that Philippine authorities had also confirmed the suspect had recently traveled to their country on an Indian passport.
Tarar praised Australian authorities for what he called a professional investigation and for refraining from assigning blame until facts were verified.
He questioned whether legal action or apologies would follow for what he described as reputational damage to Pakistan, saying the country had lost more than 90,000 lives in its fight against terrorism, including schoolchildren killed in the 2014 Army Public School attack in Peshawar, which Pakistan commemorates annually on Dec. 16.
The minister reiterated Pakistan’s long-standing accusations that India supports militant activity inside Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, claims New Delhi has repeatedly denied.
Pakistan, he said, would continue to condemn terrorism “in all its forms and manifestations” and urged international media to verify information before publishing unsubstantiated allegations.
