In India, Akram relatives go to ground, tell police they had minimal contact
“Since the last few days, my kids are worried and are asking me, ‘Why are all these people standing here with cameras?’”
Sajid Akram, 50, was an Indian citizen. He graduated with a commerce degree in Hyderabad, a sprawling tech and pharmaceuticals hub in the southern state of Telangana, before leaving for a new life in Australia on a student visa in 1998. His son, Naveed, 24, was born in Australia.
Along the quiet cul-de-sac, neighbours are reluctant to be drawn into an international news event of such horror. Credit: Saurabh Yadav
Indian authorities have been eager to emphasise that Sajid Akram’s ties to his home country disintegrated in the 27 years since he migrated to Australia. They have rejected any local link to the pair’s radicalisation, which culminated in a rampage at Bondi Beach on Sunday in which they targeted the Jewish community at a Hanukkah celebration, shooting dead 15 people and injuring dozens of others.
Naveed Akram, who is under police guard in hospital, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder.
Sajid Akram, shot dead by a NSW police officer during the attack, had “no adverse” record in India before he left.
Sajid and Naveed Akram’s passports, as shown on television in the Philippines.
“The factors that led to the radicalisation of Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed, appear to have no connection with India or any local influence in Telangana,” the Telangana police said in a statement on Wednesday.
Sajid’s relatives in Hyderabad, who reportedly include his elderly mother and brother, have also rejected any knowledge of the pair’s terrorist inclinations, telling police they had had minimal contact over the years.
“The family members have expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalisation,” the Telangana police said.
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Sajid’s brother told Indian digital news platform The News Minute the family had cut ties with him when he married a Christian after leaving India. Their mother, who is an octogenarian, had been unwell, and Sajid had not even asked about her, the brother said.
Sajid had returned to India only six times in the years since he migrated to Australia, his family told police. His most recent visit was in 2022 for two weeks, The Hindu newspaper reported, citing local officials, adding he had not returned when his father died in 2017. Indian agencies had found in a preliminary probe that the brothers had a fallout over property when Sajid was in Hyderabad a few years ago, The News Minute reported.
Meanwhile, Australian police and counter-terrorism forces are under pressure to stitch together the footprint of the Akrams’ lives in western Sydney, including Naveed’s connections to extremist figures. In the weeks before Sunday’s mass shooting, the pair spent almost a month on the Philippine island of Mindanao, which in the past has been a hotbed of Islamic State insurgency, triggering speculation that the Akrams received terrorism training there.
It’s an association that Philippine authorities have rejected, with a spokesman for President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr saying there was no evidence the pair were in the country for extremist training.
The Pakistan government has also rejected any association with the terrorists and denounced a misinformation campaign that circulated false claims online that Naveed Akram was a Pakistani national.
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In the hours after the attack, a Pakistani man also named Naveed Akram, who lives in NSW, released a video saying pictures had been stripped from his Facebook account and posted to social media identifying him as the Bondi shooter.
“I’m going to clearly tell everyone that that is not me and I have nothing to do with that incident or with that person. That is a different person,” he said in the video.
“So this issue is very serious and I’m very stressed and scared about this, and I cannot even go outside safely. So I just want everyone’s help to help me stop this propaganda.”
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar accused “hostile countries”, including India, of boosting the false claims, which rapidly spread across digital platforms and were picked up by some media outlets without evidence or verification.
“This assertion was later proven to be completely false,” Tarar wrote on X on Wednesday evening.
“As Pakistan has suffered from terrorism for a long time, we fully understand the grief of the Australian people and express complete solidarity with them.”
Bondi Beach incident helplines:
- Bondi Beach Victim Services on 1800 411 822
- Bondi Beach Public Information & Enquiry Centre on 1800 227 228
- NSW Mental Health Line on 1800 011 511 or Lifeline on 13 11 14
- Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or chat online at kidshelpline.com.au