{"id":186516,"date":"2025-12-16T12:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T12:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/186516\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T12:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T12:51:13","slug":"bondi-gunmen-linked-to-islamic-state-as-flags-bombs-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/186516\/","title":{"rendered":"Bondi gunmen linked to Islamic State as flags, bombs found"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father and son who carried out an anti-Semitic massacre have been linked to Islamic State as investigations continue into Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in three decades.<\/p>\n

Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed Akram, 24, fired at a Jewish gathering at Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more.<\/p>\n

“Early indications point to a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

There was no evidence suggesting others were involved in the attack but it remained early in the piece, she added.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier said the duo were influenced by an “extreme perversion of Islam<\/a>“, but there was no evidence they were part of a larger cell.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks about the Bondi Beach terror attack. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Naveed came to the attention of Australia’s intelligence agency ASIO in 2019, when he was interviewed during a six-month investigation due to his association with two people, who were subsequently imprisoned.<\/p>\n

“They determined that there was no evidence of this person planning or considering or indeed promoting any act of violence, or any act which could be deemed to be anti-Semitic, targeting the Jewish community, which is what occurred,” Albanese said.<\/p>\n

When and how he was radicalised after that is under investigation, the prime minister said.<\/p>\n

The two men travelling to the Philippines in the weeks preceding the attack isn’t believed to have triggered any alerts to authorities, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The Southeast Asian nation is a known hotspot for the Islamic State of East Asia, which is a designated terrorist organisation in Australia.<\/p>\n

“Where they went is unknown at this stage and subject to the investigation,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n

Improvised explosive devices and two homemade IS flags were found in a car registered to Naveed, Lanyon added.<\/p>\n

Naveed is an Australian-born citizen while Sajid arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa before transferring to a partner visa in 2001.<\/p>\n

Sajid travelled out of Australia three times and returned on resident visas, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.<\/p>\n

Kiwi Rupert Gillies was among those who answered the cries for help on the sands of Australia\u2019s most popular beach.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The father owned six firearms legally, four of which were found at the scene and two were recovered from a house in Campsie, in Sydney’s southwest, which the pair used as a short-term rental ahead of the attack.<\/p>\n

Police have raided the Campsie rental and their home in Bonnyrigg.<\/p>\n

Sajid initially applied for a gun licence in 2015 but didn’t get a required photo taken and the application lapsed in 2016, Lanyon said.<\/p>\n

He then applied a second time in 2020 and a licence was issued in 2023.<\/p>\n

Sajid was fatally shot during the massacre at Bondi, while Naveed remains in a coma in hospital.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old underwent an operation on Monday and is under close police guard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father and son who carried out an anti-Semitic massacre have been linked to Islamic State as investigations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,42,43,31451,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-186516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-terrorism","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}