Sajid left the Indian city of Hyderabad in 1998; The intelligence agency questioned Naveed in 2019
A woman holds a candle next to flowers laid in tribute at Bondi Beach to honor the victims of a mass shooting that targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Sunday, in Sydney, Australia, December 16, 2025. Photo: Reuters
SYDNEY:
Indian police said Tuesday that one of two men suspected of carrying out a mass shooting at Bondi Beach was from southern India.
Sajid Akram and his son Naveed opened fire on Sunday evening on people gathered at Sydney’s famous beach to mark the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more.
Authorities have said the attack was intended to sow panic among the country’s Jews, but so far they have given few details about the gunmen’s underlying motivations.
Sajid was an Indian citizen who left his hometown of Hyderabad in 1998, saying in a statement that he had “limited contact with his family” since then.
His son Naveed is an Australian citizen, Indian police said.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, visiting Israel on Tuesday, offered his “very sincere and deep condolences” and said New Delhi condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the duo were driven by “Islamic State ideology”. It gave one of the first indications that the couple had been radicalized by an “ideology of hate”.
“It appears this is motivated by ISIS ideology,” he told national broadcaster ABC.
The two men traveled to the Philippines before the shooting and authorities are investigating whether they met with Islamist extremists there, Australian media reported.
The Manila immigration department confirmed to AFP that the two men had spent most of November in the Philippines, with their final destination listed as Davao.
The province, located on the southern island of Mindanao, has a long history of Islamist insurgencies against the central government.
Police found a car registered to Naveed Akram parked near the beach, with improvised bombs and two “homemade” Islamic State group flags inside, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said.
Authorities are increasingly wondering whether they could have acted sooner to thwart the attack.
Albanese said Naveed Akram, believed to be an unemployed bricklayer, came to the attention of Australian intelligence services in 2019.
“They questioned him, they questioned his family members, they questioned the people around him,” Albanese said.
“He was not considered a person of interest at that time.”
Naveed allegedly told his mother on the day of the attack that he was going on a fishing trip.
Instead, authorities believe he was holed up in a rented apartment with his father.
Carrying long guns, they peppered the beach and a nearby park with bullets for 10 minutes before police shot and killed 50-year-old Sajid.
Naveed, 24, remains in a coma in hospital under police guard.
A 10-year-old girl and two Holocaust survivors were among those killed, while 42 others suffered gunshot and other injuries.
Australian leaders agreed on Monday to toughen laws allowing father Sajid to own six firearms.
Mass shootings have been rare in Australia since a lone gunman killed 35 people in the tourist town of Port Arthur in 1996.
The attack sparked a global crackdown that included a gun buyback program and limits on semi-automatic weapons.
However, many Australians are now questioning whether these laws are fit for purpose to deal with online sales and the ever-increasing number of privately owned firearms.
“This horrible situation makes me personally feel that they need to be stricter,” David Sovyer, 43, told AFP in Bondi Beach.
Pensioner Allan McRae, 75, called for tougher gun laws. “It would have reduced the possibility of this happening if more people had reduced access to a gun,” he told AFP.
The attack also reignited allegations that Australia was dragging its feet in the fight against anti-Semitism.
“Over the last four years, I have been very clear. And I have been very clear about the dangers of rising anti-Semitism,” Israeli Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon said Tuesday as he visited a memorial to the victims.
Netanyahu said Australia’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state this year had poured “fuel on the fire of anti-Semitism”.
Australians lined up to donate blood in record numbers, with more than 7,000 donating on Monday, according to the Australian Red Cross.
