Sajid Akram, the 50-year-old dead gunman in Australia’s Bondi beach shooting incident, visited Hyderabad in 2001 along with his European-origin wife for a nikah ceremony, The Indian Express reported citing investigators who have questioned close relatives. He later visited his relatives in the Telangana capital around 2004-05 to introduce his son Naveed Akram – a co-accused in the terror attack – to his parents, it reported. Akram and his son sprayed bullets on people during a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney killing 15 people, the worst mass shooting in the country in nearly 30 years. The incident is being investigated as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.
Sajid, an Indian passport holder, moved to Australia in search of employment after completing his bachelor’s degree and had been living in Australia since 1998, while his son was born there.
‘Sajid’s relatives shared all they knew about his visits to Hyderabad’
“Sajid’s family had to be questioned because we needed to know whether they had any inkling about the attack. They cooperated. We have not found anything suspicious so far,” a Telangana intelligence official who questioned them was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
“They seemed shocked to know he (Sajid) could do something like this. They immediately told us all they knew about his visits to Hyderabad,” the officer said.
Sajid married a woman of European origin, and they had two children – Naveed and a daughter.
“In 2001, he came to Hyderabad to introduce his wife to his parents. They performed a nikah for them,” an intelligence source said, according to The Indian Express. In 2004-05, he visited again to introduce his Naveed to his parents. Sajid’s father died in 2009.
In 2012 and 2016, he travelled to Hyderabad to sell his share in the ancestral property.
Akram’s family express no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities
There is no adverse record of any kind in Sajid’s name during his stay in India, Telangana DGP B Shivadhar Reddy had said in a press statement on Tuesday. “Sajid and his son are believed to have been radicalised in Australia,” an intelligence source claimed, according to Indian Express.
Akram family members in India 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 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 police added.
The Bondi beach incident was Australia’s worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years.
The Indian government has not received any official notification from Australia on the matter, Bloomberg reported citing officials familiar with the issue.