Bondi Beach shooting suspect father had entered Philippines as ‘Indian national’, says report

THE father and son accused of carrying out one of Australia’s deadliest mass shootings spent nearly the entire month of November in the Philippines, according AFP report citing confirmation from Manila’s immigration authorities.

Philippine officials said the elder suspect entered the country using an Indian passport. Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram, who allegedly killed 15 people and injured dozens more during a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, arrived in the Philippines on 1 November, with the southern city of Davao listed as their final destination.

Immigration spokeswoman Dana Sandoval told AFP, “Sajid Akram, 50, Indian national, and Naveed Akram, 24, Australian national, arrived in the Philippines together last November 1, 2025 from Sydney, Australia,” adding that the pair departed the country on 28 November.

Australia PM says 'Islamic State ideology' drove Bondi Beach gunmen

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said a father and son accused of carrying out one of the country’s deadliest mass shootings were driven by “Islamic State ideology”, pointing to extremist radicalisation as the motive behind the attack.

Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram allegedly opened fire on crowds gathered at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday evening during celebrations for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more.

Authorities have said the shooting was intended to spread fear within Australia’s Jewish community, although details about the gunmen’s underlying motivations have, until now, been limited.

Speaking on Tuesday, PM Albanese offered the clearest indication yet of the ideological drivers behind the violence.

“It would appear that this was motivated by Islamic State ideology,” he told national broadcaster ABC.

In a separate interview, the prime minister added: “With the rise of ISIS more than a decade ago now, the world has been grappling with extremism and this hateful ideology.”

Police investigating the attack discovered a vehicle registered to Naveed Akram parked close to the beach shortly after the shooting. A subsequent search uncovered improvised explosive devices and “two homemade ISIS flags”, according to New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group.

Albanese said Naveed Akram, 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."

Police are still piecing together the duo's movements before the shooting.

Australian authorities are investigating whether they met with Islamist extremists during the trip, local media reported.

Naveed reportedly told his mother on the day of the attack that he was heading out of the city on a fishing trip.

Instead, authorities believe that he was holed up in a rental apartment with his father, plotting the assault.

Carrying long-barrelled guns, they peppered the beach and a nearby park with bullets for 10 minutes before police shot and killed 50-year-old Sajid.

Naveed, 24, remains in a coma in hospital under police guard.