{"id":194393,"date":"2025-12-16T08:44:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T08:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/194393\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T08:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T08:44:08","slug":"alleged-gunmen-travelled-to-philippines-before-isis-inspired-shooting-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/194393\/","title":{"rendered":"alleged gunmen travelled to Philippines before \u2018Isis-inspired\u2019 shooting \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father and son allegedly behind the Bondi Beach attack appear to have been inspired by Islamic State, according to Australian<\/a> prime minister Anthony Albanese.<\/p>\n

Police have also confirmed they are investigating why the pair travelled to the Philippines last month.<\/p>\n

The New South Wales police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, on Tuesday said Naveed Akram (24), and his 50-year-old father, Sajid, <\/a>had recently travelled to the Philippines, which was confirmed by authorities in Manila.<\/p>\n

Mr Lanyon also alleged that IEDs and two home-made Islamic State flags were found in a car registered to Naveed that was parked at the scene of Sunday\u2019s shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese told reporters that \u201cit would appear that there is evidence that this was inspired by a terrorist organisation, by Isis\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is alleged the duo killed 15 people \u2013 with another 25 still in hospital on Tuesday \u2013 in the attack on a Jewish celebration at the Sydney beach.<\/p>\n

Naveed was arrested at the scene and taken to a Sydney hospital with critical injuries. His father was shot dead by police.<\/p>\n

Mr 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. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Man who risked life to disarm alleged Bondi gunman \u2018couldn\u2019t bear to see people dying\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Mr Albanese has said Asio had examined Naveed for six months because of his alleged associations with others, with the ABC reporting claims that the counterterror investigation involved an Islamic State cell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,\u201d Mr Albanese said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Their overseas travel was confirmed by authorities in the Philippines, who described Sajid as an Indian national. The Bureau of Immigration said the pair arrived on November 1st, citing Davao, in the country\u2019s south, as their final destination in the Philippines. They left the country on November 28th.<\/p>\n

Authorities will now consider if the trip \u2013 along with Sajid gaining a gun licence and acquiring six firearms, and Naveed\u2019s suspected links to possible Islamic extremism in 2019 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

In the same year Asio first looked into him, Naveed was filmed on the streets of Sydney as part of the \u2018Street Dawah Movement\u2019 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

In one since-deleted YouTube clip, Naveed appears to be talking to two teenagers about the five pillars of Islam. \u201cWe have to remember to always pray,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s more important than anything else that you have to do. Work, school.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another, he is seen handing out pamphlets outside Bankstown station.<\/p>\n

\"AA rabbi speaks to mourners at a tribute outside Bondi Pavilion in Sydney. Photograph: David Gray\/AFP <\/p>\n

The group released a statement via social media on Tuesday, saying \u201cNaveed Akram is not a member of the Street Dawah Movement organisation and never has been\u201d, and that none of its members knew him personally.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a keen visitor at our volunteer Sunday community Muslim faith awareness programmes in 2019 and volunteered to make a video with us and visited a few times,\u201d the group said, adding that it has had no contact with him since.<\/p>\n

Naveed has also been linked in media reports to another Dawah movement, led by hardline Islamic preacher Wisam Haddad. But a lawyer for Mr Haddad said on Tuesday that he \u201cvehemently denies any knowledge of or involvement in the shootings that took place at Bondi Beach\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Clarke Jones, an Australia National University (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\u2019s south. This is because of their geographic isolation and how dangerous it was to travel there.<\/p>\n

He noted, however, that other private military training \u2013 not linked to extremist groups \u2013 that was available in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Levi West, a counter-terrorism expert at ANU, said he believed there were three likely reasons why an alleged terrorist might travel to the Philippines \u2013 including to train with \u201ceither Islamic State or Abu Sayyaf, or any of the other litany of terrorist organisations that exist\u201d in the country\u2019s south, on the same island where Davao is located.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s equally possible that [someone could engage] … with entirely legal military training,\u201d Mr West said.<\/p>\n

He also said an alleged terrorist might travel there to \u201cindulge themselves in a kind of last hurrah before they came back and switched into preparation mode\u201d.<\/p>\n

The firearms reforms set to be introduced after the attack include several measures which appear to directly address cases such as that of Sajid Akram.<\/p>\n

Mr 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.<\/p>\n

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, also said police should be able to consider \u201ccriminal intelligence\u201d \u2013 not just a criminal record \u2013 when assessing a gun licence application.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can craft a law that the police commissioner can say: \u2018I\u2019ve got concerns about this person, I don\u2019t want them having access to a gun\u2019, notwithstanding the fact they don\u2019t have a criminal record, that is the kind of legislation we want to see,\u201d he said. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father and son allegedly behind the Bondi Beach attack appear to have been inspired by Islamic State,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[986,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-194393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}