Citizenship News
Two gunmen who killed 15 people at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia on Sunday have been named in local media as Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed, 24.
A BBC report said Police had earlier confirmed the gunmen were father and son. The older man died at the scene, while his son is in a critical condition in hospital.
The men had reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. The BBC gives accounts:
The shootings targeted Jewish people attending a Hanukkah event – the victims include a 10-year-old girl, a British-born rabbi, a retired police officer, and a Holocaust survivor.
The parents of bystander Ahmed al Ahmed, who was filmed wrestling a gun off an attacker, said he was shot four or five times in the shoulder.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he will push for tougher gun laws after the attack – the older attacker had a firearms licence for recreational hunting.
Sajid Akram had died at the scene, and his son Naveed Akram remains in hospital in a critical condition.
The BBC gives account of what it knows about the attackers so far:
Sajid Akram arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998, which was transferred in 2001 to a partner visa and later resident return visas. He had a firearms licence for recreational hunting and was a member of a gun club.
Naveed Akram first came to authorities’ attention in October 2019 but Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said an “assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence.”
The Australian broadcaster ABC reports Naveed Akram, who is an Australian-born citizen, was examined over his close ties to a Sydney-based Islamic State (IS) terrorism cell.
ABC also reports that counter terrorism police believe the gunmen had pledged allegiance to the IS terrorist group.
Police believe the gunmen had prepared for the attack at a short-term rental property around a 30-minute drive from Bondi Beach.
A single-storey grey building in Campsie has become one of the main focuses of the police investigation.
Officers raided the gunmen’s family home last night, around an hour’s drive away. One of their former neighbours told the BBC that when she saw the news of the shooting, “I thought oh my goodness, it can’t be them”
