One of the two men suspected of carrying out the mass shooting at Bondi Beach was originally from southern India but had little to no contact with his family there, according to police sources. Sajid Akram, 50, who was killed at the scene in Sydney on Sunday, was originally from the city of Hyderabad in India, according to a police official from the state of Telangana.
The official said Akram had returned to India only six times since relocating to Australia in 1998, and his family told authorities they were unaware of any extremist beliefs or activities linked to him. The terrorists are also believed to have had ISIS links.
At Least One Indian
Sajid and his 24-year-old son, Naveed, are suspected of having carried out the attack during a Hanukkah celebration on Sunday, killing 15 people and leaving dozens of others injured. Hyderabad, the city where Sajid Akram's family lives, is the capital of Telangana, a state in southern India.
A Telangana police official told BBC Telugu that Sajid had "visited India on six occasions after migrating to Australia, primarily for family-related reasons such as property matters and visits to his elderly parents".
"It is understood that he did not travel to India even at the time of his father's demise," the official said.
"The factors that led to the radicalization of Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed appear to have no connection with India or any local influence in Telangana."
The official added that Sajid Akram had no criminal history in India, had completed his education, and moved to Australia in search of work before later marrying a woman described as being "of European origin."
While Akram himself held an Indian passport, his children were born in Australia and are Australian citizens, the official said.
Son an Australian
Police are now trying to determine why the father and son traveled to the Philippines in the weeks before the attack. Immigration officials there told the BBC that they arrived on November 1 and left on November 28. Authorities said Sajid Akram entered the country using an Indian passport, while his son traveled on Australian identification.
Citing security sources, Australia's ABC reported that the pair may have gone to the island nation for what was described as "military-style training," though officials stressed that this claim has not been independently confirmed.
In response to the unfolding investigation, Philippine Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Theresa Lazaro and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong agreed to stay in close contact and share information, Lazaro said in a message sent to the media.
ABC also reported that Naveed Akram had previously been investigated over alleged links to a Sydney-based Islamic State (IS) terror cell. IS is a militant extremist group responsible for numerous attacks worldwide, including the deadly Paris attacks in 2015.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Naveed Akram first drew the attention of authorities in 2019, after being identified as having associations with individuals already on law enforcement's radar.
However, at the time, an "assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence".
