Bondi gunmen were inspired by ISIS, travelled to the Philippines, authorities say
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Sajid Akram (foreground) and his son Naveed opened fire on crowds thronging Bondi Beach on Dec 14, killing 15 people.
PHOTO: SOCIAL MEDIA
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SYDNEY – A father and son were likely driven by “Islamic State (ISIS) ideology” when they fired on Bondi Beach
Sajid Akram, 50, and his 24-year-old son Naveed
The authorities said the attack was designed to sow panic among the nation’s Jews, but have so far given little detail on the gunmen’s deeper motivations.
Both men travelled to the Philippines in November
The Philippines Bureau of Immigration also confirmed on Dec 16 that the two men travelled to the Philippines on Nov 1 aboard Philippine Airlines Flight PR212 from Sydney to Manila and onwards to Davao.
A spokesperson for the bureau added that they departed on Nov 28 on the same flight number, PR212, from Davao province in the war-torn southern island of Mindanao back to Sydney, weeks before the assault that led to the death of 16 people, including one of the gunmen.
“The reasons why they went to the Philippines, and the purpose of that, and where they went, is under investigation at the moment,” New South Wales police commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters.
It was not conclusive they were linked to any terrorist group or whether they received training in the Philippines.
Indian police said on Dec 16 that Sajid was originally from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad but had limited contact with his family in India.
“The family members have expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalisation,” Telangana state police said in a statement.
Hyderabad is the capital of Telangana. The police said the factors that led to the radicalisation of the two gunmen “appear to have no connection with India or any local influence in Telangana”.
Sajid visited India on six occasions, mainly for family-related reasons, since he migrated to Australia in 1998. There was no “adverse record” on him before he left India, the statement added.
ISIS-linked networks are known to operate in the Philippines and have wielded some influence in Mindanao.
They have been reduced to weakened cells operating in the southern Mindanao island in recent years, far from the scale of influence they yielded during the 2017 Marawi siege.
In 2017, ISIS-inspired militants seized parts of the city of Marawi in Mindanao and held it through five months of ground offensives and air strikes by the military.
The siege of Marawi, the country’s biggest battle since World War II, displaced some 350,000 residents and killed more than 1,100 people, mostly militants.
While the Armed Forces of the Philippines is validating the reports, its spokesperson said in a statement that the military is closely coordinating with agencies on matters involving the movements of foreign nationals and potential terrorist ties.
Mr Albanese gave one of the first hints on Dec 16 that the pair had been radicalised by an “ideology of hate”.
“It would appear that this was motivated by Islamic State ideology,” he told national broadcaster ABC.
“With the rise of ISIS more than a decade ago now, the world has been grappling with extremism and this hateful ideology,” he said in a separate interview.
Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett said at a news conference that “early indications point to a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State”.
“These are the alleged actions of those who have aligned themselves with a terrorist organisation, not a religion,” she said.
The authorities are facing mounting questions over whether more could have been done to foil the attack.
Mr Albanese said that Naveed, the younger man, reportedly an unemployed bricklayer, had come to the attention of Australia’s intelligence agency in 2019.
But he was not considered an imminent threat at the time.
“They interviewed him. They interviewed his family members. They interviewed people around him,” Mr Albanese said.
“He was not seen at that time to be a person of interest.”
Videos have emerged of Naveed preaching Islam outside train stations in suburban Sydney.
Police also said the vehicle registered to him contained improvised explosive devices and two homemade flags associated with ISIS, a militant group designated by Australia and many other countries as a terrorist organisation.
The police are still piecing together the duo’s movements
On the day of the attack, Naveed reportedly told his mother that he was heading out of the city on a fishing trip. Instead, the authorities believed he was holed up in a rental apartment with his father plotting the assault.
Carrying long-barrelled guns, they peppered the beach with bullets for 10 minutes before the police shot and killed Sajid.
Naveed remains in a coma in hospital under police guard.
Hours after the shooting, the police found a homemade bomb in a car parked close to the beach, saying the improvised explosive device had likely been planted by the pair.
‘Failed’ to act
A 10-year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor and a local rabbi were among those killed
Australia’s leaders agreed on Dec 15 to toughen laws that had allowed Sajid to own six guns. He received his gun licence in 2023, the police said.
Mass shootings have been rare in Australia since a lone gunman killed 35 people in the tourist town of Port Arthur in 1996.
The Port Arthur massacre sparked a world-leading crackdown that included a gun buyback scheme and limits on semi-automatic weapons.
The Bondi attack has also revived allegations that Australia is dragging its feet in the fight against anti-Semitism.
Australian Jewish Association head Robert Gregory told AFP that the government had “failed to take adequate actions to protect the Jewish community”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Australia’s decision to recognise Palestinian statehood earlier in 2025 had poured “oil on the fire of anti-Semitism”
Desperate to help, Australians have lined up in their thousands to donate blood to the wounded.
Red Cross Australia said more than 7,000 people had given blood on Dec 15, smashing the previous national record.
A makeshift flower memorial next to Bondi Beach swelled in size on the evening of Dec 15 as mourners gathered to pay tribute to the victims and mark the second day of Hanukkah.
Mourners at a makeshift flower memorial next to Bondi Beach on Dec 16.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Hundreds of mourners, including members of the Jewish community, sang songs, clapped and held each other.
Leading a ceremony to light a menorah candle, a rabbi told the crowd: “The only strength we have is if we bring light into the world.” AFP, REUTERS
