Sajid Akram, one of the suspects involved in last week’s shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia, was originally a resident of Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana. Telangana Police said on Tuesday (16 December 2025) that 50-year-old Sajid may have settled in Australia 27 years ago, but he had an Indian passport.
‘Sajid had gone to Australia in 1998’
According to a media report, Sajid along with his son Navid Akram had recently gone to Philippines on an Indian passport. Sajid was killed during police action on Bondi Beach. According to a statement issued by the Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) office, Sajid had moved to Australia in November 1998 and had limited contact with his family living in Hyderabad.
Sajid married a European woman
The statement said, ‘Sajid was originally a resident of Hyderabad (India). He obtained B.Com degree from Hyderabad and then went to Australia in November 1998 about 27 years ago in search of employment. It is said that in Australia, Sajid married a woman of European origin and settled there. According to the statement, ‘The couple has two children (a son and a daughter). One of them, Naveed (24), is among the two suspected attackers of Bondi Beach.
‘A terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State’
It says that Naveed and his sister were born in Australia and both are citizens there. Last week, 15 people were killed in a shooting at a crowd celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Australia’s Federal Police Commissioner Chrissy Barrett said on Tuesday that the shooting was a terrorist attack inspired by the Islamic State (IS).
According to Australian authorities, a father and son are suspected of carrying out the shooting incident. He told that the father and son have been identified as Sajid Akram and Navid Akram. According to officials, Sajid was killed in police action at the spot, while Naveed was seriously injured and is being treated in the hospital.
How many times did Sajid come to India after settling in Australia?
Telangana Police said that Sajid had come to India six times after settling in Australia. He came to India primarily for family reasons, including property matters and to meet his elderly parents, but he is said to have not visited India at the time of his father’s death.
According to the police, the family members have said that they neither had any knowledge about Sajid’s radical thinking or activities nor about the circumstances that led him to follow the path of radicalism. Police said, ‘The factors behind the radicalization of Sajid and his son Navid Akram do not appear to be linked to any local influence in India or Telangana. No adverse record has been found against Sajid during his stay in the country before leaving India in 1998.
Sajid and Navid went to Philippines for military training
Telangana Police said it is committed to cooperating with central agencies and other counterparts as and when needed. He urged the public and the media to avoid speculation or allegations without verified facts. Meanwhile, Australia’s ABC news channel, quoting security sources, said in a news broadcast that Sajid and Naveed had gone to Philippines to receive military training.
According to the news, ‘After Sajid and Naveed traveled to Manila in early November, investigators are now probing the father-son’s links with an international jihadi network.’ The Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration confirmed that the father-son duo had arrived in the Philippines from Australia on November 1 and were staying in the southern city of Davao, which has been a stronghold of Islamic extremists since the 1990s.
Both entered Philippines on passports of different countries
The news quoted Immigration Bureau spokesperson Dana Sandoval as saying, “Sajid and Navid left the country on November 28, 2025 on a flight from Davao to Australia via Manila and their final destination was Sydney.” It quoted Sandoval as saying that Sajid had entered the Philippines on an Indian passport, while his son Navid had entered the Philippines on an Australian passport.
Claire Castro, undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Office in the Philippines, said the National Security Council (NSC) was investigating reports that the father and son had traveled to the Philippines a month before the attack.
