The father and son duo allegedly behind the Bondi attack appear to have been inspired by Islamic State, the Australian prime minister says, as police confirmed they were investigating why the pair travelled to the Philippines last month.
The New South Wales police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, on Tuesday alleged Naveed Akram, 24, and his 50-year-old father, Sajid, had recently travelled to the Philippines, which was confirmed by authorities in Manila.
Lanyon also alleged that IEDs and two homemade IS flags were found in a car registered to Naveed that was parked at the scene of Sunday’s Hanukah festival shooting.
“The reasons why they went to the Philippines, and the purpose of that, and where they went when they were there, is under investigation at the moment,” Lanyon said.
Anthony Albanese told reporters that “it would appear that there is evidence that this was [allegedly] inspired by a terrorist organisation, by Isis”.
It’s alleged the pair killed 15 people – with another 25 still in hospital on Tuesday – in the attack at the Sydney beach.
Naveed was arrested at the scene and taken to a Sydney hospital with critical injuries. His father was shot dead by police.
Lanyon corrected reporting that the older man first gained a gun licence a decade ago, saying he was not issued one until 2023.
He said an initial application, lodged in 2015, had lapsed as no photograph was supplied for the licence. A second application was lodged in 2020 for a category AB licence, which was issued in 2023.
That licence was issued despite his son, who worked as a bricklayer, coming under the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) in October 2019. Albanese has said Asio had examined Naveed for six months because of his alleged associations with others, with the ABC reporting claims that the counter-terror investigation involved an Islamic State cell.
“The assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Albanese said on Monday.
Their overseas travel was confirmed by authorities in the Philippines, who described the Sajid as an Indian national. The Bureau of Immigration said the pair arrived on 1 November, citing Davao, in the country’s south, as their final destination in the Philippines. They left the country on 28 November
Authorities will now consider if the trip – along with Sajid gaining a gun licence and acquiring six firearms, and Naveed’s suspected links to possible Islamic extremism in 2019 – are strands of intelligence that should have been woven together before the attack to give a greater picture of any threat posed by the alleged terrorists.
Indian police said on Tuesday Sajid Akram, was originally from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad but had limited contact with his family in India who “knew nothing” about his radicalisation.
Alleged shooter appeared in YouTube videos
In the same year Asio first looked into him, Naveed was filmed on the streets of Sydney as part of the “Street Dawah Movement” – a street preaching group where members spoke to the public about Islam at train stations around Sydney. He was aged 17 or 18 at the time.
In one since-deleted YouTube clip, Naveed appears to be talking to two teenagers about the five pillars of Islam. “We have to remember to always pray,” he says.
“It’s more important than anything else that you have to do. Work, school.”
In another, he’s seen handing out pamphlets outside Bankstown station, and comments about how he was studying at Tafe.
Guardian Australia reported on Monday that he gained an apprenticeship as a bricklayer after graduating from Tafe later that year.
The group released a statement via social media on Tuesday, saying “Naveed Akram is not a member of the Street Dawah Movement organisation and never has been”, and that none of it’s members knew him personally.
“He was a keen visitor at our volunteer Sunday community Muslim faith awareness programs in 2019 and volunteered to make a video with us and visited a few times,” the group said, adding that it has had no contact with him since.
Naveed has also been linked in media reports to another Dawah movement, led by hardline Islamic preacher Wisam Haddad. But a lawyer for Haddad said on Tuesday that he “vehemently denies any knowledge of or involvement in the shootings that took place at Bondi beach”.
While Asio and NSW police confirm they had some knowledge of Naveed, there is no indication he came under the attention of authorities at any point since the 2019 investigation ended.
Groups in the Philippines
The trip to the Philippines appears to have come after Naveed told his boss he was unable to work as a bricklayer until 2026 because he had broken his hand boxing, and after he asked for all his work entitlements to be paid out.
Speaking generally, Clarke Jones, an ANU academic who has worked with imprisoned extremists in the Philippines, said it was difficult for tourists to undergo training with terrorist groups, generally based in the country’s south. This is because of their geographic isolation and how dangerous it was to travel there.
He noted, however, that other private military training – not linked to extremist groups – was available in the Philippines.
Jones also said there were strong intelligence connections between the countries which should enable Australian authorities to uncover what the duo were doing during the visit.
Levi West, a counter-terrorism expert at ANU who was also speaking generally, said he believed there were three likely reasons why an alleged terrorist might travel to the Philippines – including to train with “either Islamic State or Abu Sayyaf, or any of the other litany of terrorist organisations that exist” in the country’s south, on the same island where Davao is located.
“It’s equally possible that [someone could engage] … with entirely legal military training,” West said.
He also said an alleged terrorist might travel there to “indulge themselves in a kind of last hurrah before they came back and switched into preparation mode”.
Firearm law reform
Legal changes set to be introduced after the attack include several measures which appear to directly address cases such as that of Sajid Akram.
Albanese said these could include limiting the number of guns an individual can own, the type of guns that are legal, whether gun ownership should require Australian citizenship and accelerating work on the National Firearms Register.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, also said police should be able to consider “criminal intelligence” – not just a criminal record – when assessing a gun licence application.
“If we can craft a law that the police commissioner can say, ‘I’ve got concerns about this person, I don’t want them having access to a gun’, notwithstanding the fact they don’t have a criminal record, that is the kind of legislation we want to see,” Minns said.
In her first comments about the attack, the Australian Federal Police commissioner, Krissy Barrett, said there was no evidence to suggest other individuals were involved in what appeared to be an Islamic State-inspired attack. But she added that “we caution that this could change given it is early in our investigation”.
“Alleged evidence has provided investigators with a swathe of information that has enabled them to make this initial assessment about the alleged individuals involved and their motivations,” she said.
