Brent Tarrant, a 28-year-old white man, who gunned down 49 people attending the Friday prayers at two mosques in New Zealand’s Christchurch on Friday, 15 March, had travelled across the world for seven years, during which it is believed that his radicalisation happened.
And among the places he apparently visited were Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) as well as North Korea.
A Facebook post from October 2018, whose screenshots have now gone viral, features a picture of Tarrant from the Gilgit-Baltistan region. Accompanying that is a message, apparently written by him, where he is ironically praising Pakistan as an “incredible place filled with the most earnest, kind-hearted and hospitable people in the world,” adding that “the beauty of hunza and nagar valley in autumn cannot be beat”.
He also urged for the Pakistani government to make the visa process easier to encourage tourism.
According to a report in the The New York Times, people at two hotels in the Gilgit-Baltistan region confirmed that a man using the same name as Tarrant visited the area in October.
They described the man as a “normal”, “polite”, “nature-loving” traveller, with “nothing out of the ordinary”.
Meanwhile, in North Korea, Tarrant was photographed alongside a tour group going to the Samjiyon Grand Monument, reported news.com.au.
In NZ Terrorist’s Manifesto: Enemies From India, China & The East
Tarrant has also left behind a 74-page manifesto where he has talked about “invasions” from India, China and Turkey and also described these countries as “potential nation enemies in the East.”
The manifesto which is titled ‘The Great Replacement’ largely spoke about removing “invaders” from European soil.
The document which had been uploaded on cloud allows an insight into Brent’s preparation before the attack and his radicalised mind.
“The invaders must be removed from European soil, regardless from where they came or when they came. Roma, African, Indian, Turkish, Semitic or other. If they are not of our people, but live in our lands, they must be removed,” the manifesto said.
According to The Indian Express, the manifesto detailed demographic and political reasons to immediately deal with the “invaders.”
“If we wait until the majority of the boomers begin to pass (between 2028-2038 depending on individual nations and life expectancies) then it will be too little, too late. As by this time, the invaders and occupiers of lands, non-Europeans, numbers will be swollen to a staggering size, due to both mass immigration and the differing birthrates between the native European people and these invaders”, a part of the manifesto stated.
The manifesto also explains how Brent decided on the locations for the attack. It details how he had been preparing for “a attack” for two years and this specific attack in Christchurch for three months.
An Australian-origin man who came to New Zealand to “live temporarily whilst he planned and trained,” Brent also stated that the country wasn’t the original choice for the attack but he “soon found out that New Zealand was as target rich of an environment as anywhere else in the West”.
Regarding his choice of weapons, the manifesto said that he “chose firearms for the affect it would have on social discourse, the extra media coverage they would provide and the affect it could have on the politics of United states and thereby the political situation of the world.”
He also wrote that he had the resources to use an explosive-filled truck or carry out plane attacks.
At least 49 people were reported dead in the two mass shootings at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Friday, 15 March.
Tarrant appeared in court on a murder charge on Saturday, 16 March.
The terror attack took place in Al Noor Mosque in central Christchurch and the Linwood Mosque in the city's suburbs.
(WIth inputs from The Indian Express.)
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