'Hostile nations' behind linking Pak to Bondi shooting: Minister

Tarar slams 'misinformation drive maligning Pakistan' after Australia beach shooting, calls on media outlets that published the false reports to issue apologies

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Pakistan's information minister said on Wednesday that his country has been the victim of a coordinated online disinformation campaign following the mass shooting at Australia’s Bondi Beach.

Attaullah Tarar accused “hostile countries,” including India, of spreading false claims that one of the two attackers was a Pakistani national.

Alleged gunmen, father and son, had opened fire during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Sydney's Bondi Beach. The attack killed 15 people, including a rabbi who was a father of five, a Holocaust survivor and a 10-year-old girl, Matilda Britvan, while two police officers remained in critical but stable condition, according to New South Wales police.

Speaking at a news conference in Islamabad, Tara said Pakistan's leadership strongly condemned Sunday’s attack, which killed 15 people in an antisemitic shooting targeting Jews celebrating Hanukkah.

The minister said misleading information began circulating almost immediately after the attack, with social media posts falsely identifying one of the suspects as a Pakistani national named Naveed Akram. He said the claims spread rapidly across digital platforms and were repeated by some media outlets without verification.