The father-son duo suspected of carrying out the massacre at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach on Sunday were “motivated by Islamic State ideology,” police said, with Philippine authorities confirming they had recently traveled to parts of the country long a hotbed of extremism.
The two were 50-year-old Sajid Akram, who was killed in a shootout with police, and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, who was detained in hospital and is expected to face serious charges.
Public broadcaster ABC reported on Tuesday that Australian counterterrorism officials believe the pair underwent military-style training while in the southern Philippines last month.
Police said two handmade Islamic State flags were found in a vehicle registered to the young suspect, who had been previously assessed by internal security services and deemed not to pose a threat.
Authorities said the gunmen targeted Australian Jews who were celebrating the first night of Hanukkah. The attack, which left 15 people dead, was the country’s deadliest mass shooting in nearly 30 years.
Police say there is no evidence at this time to suggest more people were involved.
Here’s what we know so far about the suspect:
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the shooting appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State ideology.
New South Wales Police said on Tuesday that the vehicle registered to the young suspect was loaded with an improvised explosive device and two homemade ISIS flags.
Ms Albanese said the flag’s evidence shows that “radical perversion of Islam is absolutely a problem” both in this country and around the world.
Mr Albanese told public broadcaster ABC that authorities believe the two men escaped detection because they were “not part of a wider cell”.
However, the young suspect had been known to federal security authorities for some time.
Mr Albanese said his son was investigated for six months by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) in 2019 “because of his association with two people who… later went to prison”. But the investigation concluded there was “no evidence” he had been radicalized.
Albanese said the 24-year-old was not subject to ongoing surveillance after the investigation concluded, but authorities were now investigating “whether he has since become further radicalized.”
Albanese added that the father, a licensed gun owner, was interviewed as part of the investigation in 2019, but there were “no signs of radicalization.” He said he did not know if authorities questioned whether his father was in possession of a weapon at the time.
“Anti-Semitism, of course, has been around for a very long time. That’s the point. Islamic State is an ideology that has tragically radicalized some people into this extreme position over the last decade, especially since 2015, and this is a hateful act,” Albanese said.
Early on Wednesday, Mr Albanese told the ABC Australia’s intelligence system would need to be revisited in light of the 2019 investigation into Naveed Akram.
“We need to look at exactly how the system works,” the Prime Minister said. “We need to look back at what happened in 2019, when this person was in the spotlight, and how he was evaluated.”
The imam who gave Quran lessons to Naveed Akram told CNN that the young man approached Al Murad Institute for Quran recitation and Arabic language lessons in 2019. He continued his lessons for a year.
“I condemn this act of violence without hesitation,” Sheikh Adam Ismail said in a video message.
“Not everyone who recites the Quran understands it or lives by its teachings. Sadly, that seems to be the case here,” he added.
Police are currently investigating the Akrams’ trip to the Philippines last month to determine how they became radicalized.
“We are currently investigating why they went to the Philippines, their purpose and where they went while in the Philippines,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Runyon said on Tuesday.
Mr Runyon said he was not aware of any alerts being raised while the pair were traveling. “I don’t think it was a failure of the intelligence community at all,” he said.
Philippine authorities confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that the Akrams arrived together on November 1, 2025. According to the Immigration and Deportation Service, the Akrams left Manila on November 28, with Davao (the main city in southern Mindanao) as their final destination.
Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, has long been plagued by terrorism and violence.
It is home to several Islamic militant groups, including the Abu Sayyaf, which has been accused of numerous attacks on civilians and Philippine government forces, as well as the kidnapping of several foreigners.
In 2017, Abu Sayyaf, along with another Mindanao-based militant group, the Maute Group, captured and occupied Marawi, the country’s largest Muslim-majority city. The violence forced more than 350,000 residents to flee the city and surrounding areas, and the Philippine military liberated the city after months of bloody siege.
Australia’s national security agency, ASIO, has identified the Philippines as a hotspot for Islamic State in East Asia (ISEA), an offshoot of the main Islamic State group.
“ISEA remains a deadly terrorist threat in the Philippines, with the Southeast Asian country becoming a target for foreign terrorist fighters,” ASIO said on its website. “While there are no known links between ISEA and Australia, there have been previous links between Australians and terrorist groups in the Philippines.”
The Akrams are believed to have lived in Bonnyrigg, Sydney’s western suburbs. On Monday, police searched a home connected to the couple. According to local media reports, Naveed Akram worked as a bricklayer and Sajid ran a fruit shop.
Naveed Akram was born in Australia and his father Sajid immigrated to Australia in 1998, Home Secretary Tony Burke said on Monday. Akram entered the country on a student visa, but moved to a partner visa in 2001.
Indian authorities confirmed on Tuesday that Sajid Akram is from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.
Burke said he has traveled abroad only three times in the years since, returning each time on a permanent return visa.
Officials did not confirm Sajid Akram’s country of origin. Asked on Tuesday, Premier Anthony Albanese said the information was “part of the investigation… so I won’t go into details of that.”
The Philippine Immigration Department confirmed that Sajid Akram was traveling on an Indian passport and his son Naveed was traveling on an Australian passport. CNN has contacted India’s Ministry of External Affairs for comment.
After the attack, police seized six guns belonging to Sajid Akram, who had a gun license. Some of them were discovered during raids on two properties linked to the pair. One was at their home in Bonnyrigg and the other was at an AirBnb outside Campsie where they had been staying in the days leading up to the attack.
Runyon said Sajid Akram “met the eligibility criteria for a firearms license” and held a “recreational hunting license.”
Runyon said there are two types of hunting licenses. One is the ability to hunt on the property or as part of a hunting club (commonly known as a “gun club”), which is the type of license the suspect held.
Mr Runyon said on Tuesday that Mr Sajid first applied for a firearms license in 2015, but the application lapsed in 2016 after he failed to provide the requested photo. He applied for a second time in 2020 and was issued a license in 2023.
“The firearms we seized were properly licensed,” Runyon said.
Footage of Naveed Akram firing into a crowd from a footbridge overlooking Bondi Beach has been reviewed by CNN and shows him becoming proficient with a bolt-action rifle, firing four shots in just over five seconds.
