New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday vowed accountability for the relatives of last year’s Christchurch mosque attack casualties, ahead of the public release of a major report into the country’s harshest massacre.
Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant was penalized to life in prison without parole in August for killing up to 51 Muslim worshippers and wounding dozens of others at two mosques in the South Island city on March 15, 2019.
The 792-page report took almost 18 months to conclude, and includes interviews with hundreds of people involving security agencies, Muslim community leaders, international experts and officials in England, Norway and Australia, along with Ardern.
The outcomes of a royal commission inquiry into the attack will be opened in parliament on Tuesday. The investigation was formed to look at whether there were any failings by government agencies and if the mass shooting could have been avoided.
“I absolutely appreciate the community will want to see accountability in terms of implementation. They will want to see who is responsible for coordinating some of those efforts…and we will be providing that,” Ardern spoke to a regular media briefing.
Ardern got global admiration
Ardern got world-wide admiration for her compassionate reaction to the attack and for promptly banning the sale of the high-capacity semi-automatic weapons used in the attack. She also initiated a global movement against cyber extremism.
Though, authorities were criticized for overlooking repeated warnings from the Muslim community that hate offenses against them were escalating. Critics also believed that security agencies collapsed to record hate crimes, and ignored the intensifying threat from white supremacists because they were too concentrated on the risk of Islamist terrorism.
Jacinda Ardern contacted with the family members of victims and certain survivors on Sunday and promised immediate action on the royal commission report but said some proposals may take a while to implement.
Nine Pakistanis were amongst the victims of the attack and all of them passed-away. One of them, Naeem Rashid had struggled to halt the attacker as he gunned down victims in the mosque. He capitulated to his wounds at Christchurch hospital.
His gallantry and courage were praised and recognized at a state level.
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“Pakistan is proud of Mian Naeem Rashid who was martyred trying to tackle the White Supremacist terrorist and his courage will be recognised with a national award,” stated Prime Minister Khan.
