Bondi Beach terror

The two gunmen who opened fire at Sydney's Bondi Beach were Afghan nationals. Period. The disinformation campaign launched by Indian and Afghan lobbies to portray the act as one carried by a Pakistani namesake national is farce, and unsubstantiated. Though the Australian police have not yet revealed the identity of the accused, the Home Department's testimony makes it clear that the father, Sajid Akram, a naturalised citizen, and the son, Naveed Akram, Australian born, both hail from Afghanistan's Nangarhar province. The attack at a Jewish celebration event widely dubbed as anti-Semitic killed 15 people. The heroic part of the incident was an act of bravado by one Ahmed Al Ahmed, a 43-year-old fruit shop owner, who tried to overpower one of the attackers, and was critically hurt.

The terrorist act has once again flagged Afghanistan and its berserk citizens who are trigger-happy, and believe in a culture of segregation. It is a pity that despite being naturalised citizens of a developed country, the terror-infected mentality lives on. Reports say one of the accused held a firearms licence since 2015 and had six licensed weapons. The regime in Kabul must take responsibility for it, as it sits at the vanguard of a policy perception that does not want to go against such unscrupulous elements holed up inside Afghanistan, and are a nuisance for neighbouring states, especially Pakistan. This bloodshed thousands of miles away simply confirms the evil of terror that has now become a pattern.

Naveed, 24, who is critically injured and is being treated must live to tell the tale of his origin, and the hate politics that people like him come to cultivate. The police must also come to the rescue of a Pakistan national who is being slandered and threatened for his namesake identity. Misleading images, recycled videos and fabricated narratives were widely shared to shape public perception and deflect attention from verified facts. It is, however, a good sign that social media has exposed the nefarious characters behind the slur campaign against the Pakistani national by making him public.