Pakistani: The shooters in the Bondi Beach terror incident, Sajid and Naveed, are a father-son pair of descent

Pakistani: Police confirmed Monday that the persons responsible for the shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which killed 15 innocent people, were a father-son team hailing from Lahore, Pakistan.

According to New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon, one of the shooters, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police during the assault, while his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, was injured and is now receiving medical attention at a hospital.

The father and son opened fire on Sunday night at the “Chanukah by the Sea” event, which was held to commemorate the first day of the Jewish holiday, according to the police.

Sixteen individuals were killed in the incident, including Sajid, the shooter. According to police, the oldest victim was 87 years old, while the youngest was a 10-year-old girl who passed away in a children’s hospital.

According to investigators, the two men had previously informed relatives that they were going fishing on the South Coast. Instead, in a nation famed for its stringent gun control regulations, they are accused of carrying out what has now been called the bloodiest mass shooting in Australia in over thirty years.

According to authorities, Naveed Akram is a citizen of Australia. According to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, his father, Sajid Akram, entered Australia in 1998 on a student visa, which was then changed into a partner visa in 2001 and then a resident return visa.

The two men had been sleeping at an Airbnb rental in Campsie, and the family’s home in Bonnyrigg, south-west Sydney, was raided by heavily armed police on Sunday night after the assault.

Additionally, police found a car with several homemade explosive devices on Bondi’s Campbell Parade.

“A rescue bomb disposal unit is there at the moment, working on the vehicle,” said Commissioner Lanyon.

As he officially declared the incident a “terrorist attack,” Lanyon made reference to the recovered weapons and materials, saying, “The types of weapons… some of the other items we found at the scene — as I said, we have found the improvised explosive device in a car which is linked to the deceased offender.”

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, investigators from the Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT), which consists of both federal and state authorities, think the assailants had sworn loyalty to the Islamic State terrorist organization.

Two IS flags were discovered inside the assailants’ vehicle near Bondi Beach, according to senior authorities who spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to the report, one of the flags was seen on the car’s bonnet in the video taken at the site.

Additionally, a senior JCTT officer said that around six years ago, when police thwarted preparations for a terrorist assault inspired by IS, Australia’s domestic intelligence agency ASIO became interested in Naveed Akram.

According to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, ASIO first became aware of Naveed Akram in October 2019. After around six months of investigation, investigators concluded he did not represent a continuing danger.

Officials claim that Naveed Akram was close to Matari, who is serving a seven-year jail term for organizing an IS insurgency as the terror group’s self-described Australian commander.

Matari was a member of an IS cell that also had a number of other males from Sydney who have subsequently been found guilty of crimes linked to terrorism. These people were also tightly connected to Naveed Akram, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of the probe.

Mike Burgess, the director-general of ASIO, said on Sunday that the agency knew one of the shooters, although he did not name them. “One of these individuals was known to us, but not in an immediate-threat perspective, so we need to look into what happened here,” Burgess said.

ASIO, the New South Wales Police, the Australian Federal Police, and the NSW Crime Commission make up the JCTT.

Commissioner Lanyon told reporters Monday morning that Sajid Akram had possessed a guns license for the previous ten years.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Naveed Akram, a bricklayer without a work, lost his job around two months ago when his firm went bankrupt. According to his mother, he had been actively looking for job.

The Akram family, who had resided in Cabramatta, now resides in a three-bedroom home they bought in 2024. Naveed lived in the house with his parents, his brother, who was 20, his sister, who was 22.

Verena, Naveed’s mother, informed the local media that her son had last spoken to them on Sunday morning, a few hours before to the shooting. She said that she did not think her son could be engaged in violence or extremist activities and that she could not identify him from photos taken at the site.