The Sydney tragedy and our 'Eight Minute' world

Leadership is not about amplifying public anger.

- By Pervez Akhtar Khan / Sapan News

It is about absorbing it. Slowing the moment. Creating space for facts. Especially when eight minutes is how long it would take a missile launched between Pakistan and India to reach its target, comments a retired fighter pilot, in this piece catalysed by the Bondi Beach tragedy, arguing for restraint.In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy at Bondi Beach, Sydney, last week, something deeply troubling unfolded, not at the crime scene, but in the information space.

Within minutes, before identities were confirmed and before any investigative clarity emerged, various sections of the international media began gesturing towards Pakistan. Sometimes subtly, sometimes openly, but unmistakably. Pakistan was positioned, almost reflexively, as the default suspect.

What followed was equally disturbing: a prolonged silence from Australian authorities regarding the identity of the attackers, long after sufficient information was available to correct the record.

When the facts eventually surfaced, they told a different story altogether. The father was of Indian origin, not Pakistani, having migrated to Australia on a student visa. The mother was Italian, and the son was Australian-born.

The correction, when it came, arrived quietly, without the urgency or prominence of the original insinuations.

Let me be unequivocal: identity is irrelevant to guilt.

One cannot, and must not, blame India because the father was of Indian origin, just as one cannot blame Pakistan or Islam had the facts pointed elsewhere. Criminal responsibility is individual. Nations and faiths are not trial exhibits.

But narratives matter, especially in a world where accusation now travels faster than evidence.

A dangerous pattern

This episode was not an aberration. It fits an increasingly familiar pattern.

When violence occurs: