Indian police said on Tuesday that Sajid Akram, the elder of the two men who carried out a massacre on a Sydney beach on Sunday that left 15 dead, was a citizen of India, where he left 27 years ago. This was reported by AFP and Sky News.
- Akram left India for Australia 27 years ago for work.
- The family did not know about his radical thinking.
- The attackers spent the whole of November on the Philippine island of Mindanao before the attack.
- Sajid Akram was shot, his son Naveed fell into a coma.
“Sajid Akram is from Hyderabad, India. About 27 years ago, in November 1998, he went to Australia in search of work,” AFP quoted a statement from the police in the southern Indian state of Telangana, whose capital is Hyderabad.
Akram’s relatives say they were unaware of his radical mindset
According to information from his relatives in India, 50-year-old Sajid Akram had limited contact with his family for the past 27 years, police said. After leaving Australia, he visited India six times, primarily for family reasons such as property matters and visiting parents. However, he did not come to his father’s funeral.
According to police, Akram’s relatives say they were unaware of his radical mindset or activities or the circumstances that led to his radicalisation.
“The circumstances that led to the radicalization of Sajid Akram and his son Naveed appear to have no connection with India or the events in Telangana,” the police said.
Sajid Akram was shot dead by the police during the intervention
Sajid Akram and his 24-year-old son Naveed, who is an Australian citizen according to immigration records, opened fire on people celebrating the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah on Sunday, killing 15 of them. Sajid Akram was shot by the police during the intervention, his son was seriously injured and fell into a coma, from which he has since recovered.
It turned out that the Akrams had spent almost all of November in the Philippines before the attack. The Immigration Office in Manila confirmed on Tuesday that they arrived in the Philippines on November 1 from Sydney and returned on November 28. They stayed on the island of Mindanao, which was their final destination during their journey through the Philippine archipelago. The latter is a stronghold of smaller groups of Islamist fighters who reject a peace deal signed in 2014 between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest rebel group in the Philippines.
