Indian police said on Tuesday that one of the gunmen in Australia’s Bondi Beach shooting, Sajid Akram, was originally from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad but had limited contact with his family in India.
The death toll in one of Australia’s worst mass shootings stands at 16, including 50-year-old Akram, who was shot by police. The man’s 24-year-old son and alleged accomplice, identified by local media as Naveed Akram, was in critical condition in hospital after also being shot.
Hyderabad is the capital of Telangana state. Australian police said both men had travelled to the Philippines last month, the father on an Indian passport and the son on an Australian one.
“The family members have expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalisation,” Telangana state police said in a statement.
The purpose of the trip is under investigation, officials said, adding it was not conclusive whether they were linked to any terrorist group or whether they received training in that country.
Telangana police said the factors that led to the radicalisation of the two gunmen “appear to have no connection with India or any local influence in Telangana”.
In its statement on Tuesday, Telangana police said Sajid Akram visited India on six occasions, mainly for family-related reasons, since he migrated to Australia in 1998.
There was no “adverse record” on him before he left India, the statement added.
Police added that Sajid Akram had got a degree in commerce in Hyderabad, the large and bustling tech and pharma hub that is the state capital.
Akram then moved to Australia in November 1998 to find work and married a woman described as of European origin, with whom he had a son and a daughter.
Sajid and his son Naveed, who allegedly killed 15 people and wounded dozens of others at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, arrived on November 1 with the southern Philippine province of Davao listed as their final destination.
The father and son spent nearly the entire month of November in the Philippines, Manila’s immigration department confirmed on Tuesday, with the father entering the country as an Indian national.
“Sajid Akram, 50, Indian national, and Naveed Akram, 24, Australian national, arrived in the Philippines together last November 1, 2025 from Sydney, Australia,” immigration spokeswoman Dana Sandoval told AFP, adding they departed on November 28.
Australian police said on Tuesday both men had travelled to the Philippines last month and the purpose of the trip is under investigation. Philippines police have said they are investigating the matter.
Islamic State-linked networks are known to operate in the Philippines and have wielded some influence in the south of the country. They have been reduced to weakened cells operating in the southern Mindanao island in recent years, far from the scale of influence they wielded during the 2017 Marawi siege.
“Early indications point to a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State, allegedly committed by a father and son,” Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said at a news conference.
“These are the alleged actions of those who have aligned themselves with a terrorist organisation, not a religion.”
Police also said the vehicle which is registered to the younger male contained improvised explosive devices and two homemade flags associated with ISIS, or Islamic State, a militant group designated by Australia and many other countries as a terrorist organisation.
The father and son allegedly fired upon hundreds of people at the festival during a roughly 10-minute killing spree at one of Australia’s top tourist destinations, forcing people to flee and take shelter before both were shot by police.
Some 25 survivors are receiving care in several Sydney hospitals, officials said.
Australian PM says ‘Islamic State ideology’ drove Bondi Beach gunmen
The father and son were driven by “Islamic State ideology” when they fired on crowds at Bondi Beach, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday.
“It would appear that this was motivated by Islamic State ideology,” Albanese told national broadcaster ABC.
“With the rise of ISIS more than a decade ago now, the world has been grappling with extremism and this hateful ideology,” he said in a separate interview.
Albanese said Naveed, reportedly an unemployed bricklayer, had come to the attention of Australia’s intelligence agency in 2019 but was not considered an imminent threat at the time.
“They interviewed him, they interviewed his family members, they interviewed people around him,” Albanese said.
“He was not seen at that time to be a person of interest.”
Memorial of flowers
Israeli Ambassador Amir Maimon visited Bondi on Tuesday and urged the Australian government to take all required steps to secure the lives of Jews in Australia.
“Only Australians of Jewish faith are forced to worship their gods behind closed doors, CCTV, guards,” Maimon told reporters in Bondi, after laying flowers at the temporary memorial and paying his respects to the victims.
“My heart is torn apart … it is insane.”
A string of anti-Semitic incidents in Australia has unfolded in the past 16 months, prompting the head of the nation’s main intelligence agency to declare that anti-Semitism was his top priority in terms of threat to life.
At Bondi, the beach was open on Tuesday but was largely empty under overcast skies, as a growing memorial of flowers was established at the Bondi Pavilion, metres from the location of the shootings.
Bondi is Sydney’s best-known beach, located about 8.2km (5 miles) from the city centre, and draws hundreds of thousands of international tourists each year.
Olivia Robertson, 25, visited the memorial before work.
“This is the country that our grandparents have come to for us to feel safe and to have opportunity,” she said.
“And now this has happened right here in our backyard. It’s pretty shocking.”
Ahmed al Ahmed, the 43-year-old Muslim father-of-two who charged at one of the gunmen and seized his rifle, remains in a Sydney hospital with gunshot wounds.
He has been hailed as a hero around the world, including by US President Donald Trump.
A GoFundMe campaign set up for Ahmed has raised more than A$1.9 million ($1.26 million).
Tougher gun laws
Australia’s gun laws are now being examined by the federal government, after police said Sajid Akram was a licenced gun owner and had six registered weapons.
Akram received his gun licence in 2023, not 2015 as had been earlier stated, police said on Tuesday.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said gun laws introduced by the previous conservative Liberal-National coalition government following the Port Arthur massacre needed to be re-examined.
Former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard, who introduced the gun restrictions in 1996, said on Tuesday he didn’t want to see gun law reform become a “diversion” from the need to tackle anti-Semitism.
Albanese had let the Jewish community down, Howard told reporters.
“He should have done more to fight anti-Semitism, a lot more,” he said.
The 15 victims ranged from a rabbi who was a father of five, to a Holocaust survivor, to a 10-year-old girl named Matilda Britvan, according to interviews, officials and media reports.
Two police officers remained in critical but stable condition in hospital, New South Wales police said.
Matilda’s aunt has spoken publicly of her family’s heartbreak, saying they were devastated by her death.
“I am beyond belief that this happened. I look on the phone and I am hoping it’s like a little big joke, not real,” Lina Chernykh told 7NEWS Australia.