Police personnel wheel a body after the fatal shootings in San Bernardino, California which killed 14 people.    

CHAUDHRY NISAR SAYS ACT OF AN INDIVIDUAL DOESN’T REPRESENT A COUNTRY OR FAITH

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Sunday referring to the recent shooting in California said that the act of an individual does not represent a country or religion and added that every Pakistani who has a heart and has some understanding will condemn the incident, reported Dawn.

Nisar termed the shooting as an attempt to malign Islam and Muslims and said that ‘such incidents are making life difficult for Pakistan and Muslim diaspora’.

“The wrongdoing of an individual Muslim or Pakistani does not mean the entire country or religion is at fault.”

“The Western world in particular and world in general is getting the impression that whatever these extremists are doing is actually Islam,” said Nisar.

He said Islam’s teachings start with peace and end with peace.

“Whatever these terrorists are doing has nothing to do with Islam or Muslims,” said the Interior Minister.

About the facts of case, he said that they are the same as you have got through media, that the shooter Tashfeen Malik, shifted to Saudi Arabia nearly 25 years ago and that she was a resident of Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab.

He also lauded the US government’s approach regarding the case adding that extremists, far right elements in US administration and public are criticizing the US government for not blaming Muslims and Pakistanis for terrorism but the government has so far refused to take such line.

He criticized the media for reporting that a US delegation had met prime minister to discuss the California shooting adding that the report was false and no such meeting took place.

Nisar, however, claimed that Pakistan has assured US authorities of full cooperation during their probe into the matter.

California shooting

Two heavily armed attackers opened fire on a banquet at a social services centre for the disabled in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday, killing 14 people and seriously wounding more than a dozen others.

The duo were later identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27.

According to local news reports Farook was employed by the San Bernardino County health department which is believed to have organised the party at the Inland Regional Center while the female shooter, Tashfeen Malik was of Pakistani origin and had pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,

The couple were shot dead later in the day in a shoot out with law-enforcement officials.

The attack was the deadliest mass shooting in the US since the 2012 assault on an elementary school in Connecticut that left 26 people dead, including 20 children.

On Saturday, the militant Islamic State (IS) group claimed the couple as their followers in a broadcast. However, there is no evidence yet that IS directed the attack or even knew the attackers.

IS also claimed responsibility for a Nov 13 series of attacks in Paris in which gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people.–Dawn