Sydney shooter used Indian passport for Philippines travel ahead of attack: Reports

Investigators are trying to probe if the two shooters behind the Sydney Bondi Beach carnage met extremist Islamic preachers and received military-style training as they travelled to the Philippines last month. One of the gunmen used an Indian passport to travel to the Philippines, according to reports.

Sajid Akram (50) and his son Naveed Akram (24) targeted Jews celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach in Australia, killing 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl and an 87-year-old man who survived Hitler's Holocaust.

"They travelled to the country [the Philippines] between 1 and 28 November, following reports they visited to receive 'military-style training'," the BBC reported quoting officials in Manila.

"Sajid Akram, 50, travelled on an Indian passport and his son, Naveed, 24, using an Australian passport," the BBC report quoted the officials as saying.

Bloomberg news agency quoted a spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration to report that Sajid Akram travelled from Australia to the Philippines on an Indian passport last month. Reuters too reported, citing officials, that "the father travelled on an Indian passport, while the son was on an Australian passport".

India's Ministry of External Affairs has been requested for a comment, according to the Bloomberg report.

While it has been alleged by security experts that the Akrams trace their origins to Pakistan, how Sajid got hold of an Indian passport is the key question now.

The Philippines, especially its south, has been the hub of extremist clerics and Islamist terrorist groups. Several armed Islamist outfits there have owed their allegiance to the IS.

The father-son duo travelled to the Philippines to receive "military-style training", according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). They reached the Philippines in early November.

"Naveed and Sajid Akram then journeyed to the southern Philippines and underwent militant training," a senior counter-terrorism official told the ABC, on condition of anonymity.

The ABC report says that investigators are now probing if Sajid and Naveed Akram were tied to an international jihadist network.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Bondi Beach attack was driven by "Islamic State ideology". Police recovered two homemade IS flags apart from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from a vehicle registered in Naveed's name from near the beach soon after the attack.

Naveed, who was born in Australia, had come under the scanner of Australian security agencies for suspected IS ties in 2019, but was reportedly let off unmonitored.

Eyewitnesses alleged that Australian police personnel froze as the two went about shooting unarmed Jews. Some people had commented on the initial videos of the shooting that the two didn't look like amateur shooters.

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