It is now known that the Bondi Beach shooters come from Indian origin, CNN confirmed. Where the identity of the shooters had been revealed earlier, their background had drawn much confusion. Identified as 50-year-old Sajid Akram and 24-year-old Naveed Akram, who lived in the western Sydney suburb of Bonnrigg, where they worked as a bricklayer and a fruit shop owner.
It has been confirmed that Sajid is an immigrant, whereas Naveed was born in Australia. The father-son duo had recently travelled to the Philippines, which is known to be a hub of extremism. Inspired by the Islamic State ideology, they received military training in Mindanao, Philippines, and visited the region in November 2025.
While the Australian government has not officially revealed the background of the attackers, the Philippines immigration bureau has confirmed that Sajid was travelling on an Indian passport, while Naveed held an Australian passport.
The police have seized two guns from the Akram residences in Bonnyrigg and Campsie, which had licenses for hunting. The shooters had targeted the Jewish Australian community celebrating the first night of the Hanukkah festival. Sajid was killed in an exchange of firing with the police, while Naveed is under custody in the hospital, who will face significant charges. The attack claimed 15 innocent lives and was halted by a Muslim fruit shop owner, Ahmad Al Ahmad, who is currently hospitalised and treated for his injuries.
Earlier, the Pakistani-Australian was falsely linked to the attack through India-backed social media accounts, for which a clarification was quickly issued.
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Indian ties to many terrorist attacks around the world have harrowed people; talking about the link of the country with extremism, a netizen posted:
The #BondiBeach attacker’s ties to #India highlight a disturbing link between extremism and the country. This incident underscores how growing intolerance and radical ideologies in India can have deadly global repercussions#bondiattack#bondibeachattack pic.twitter.com/7JOe1Soez4
— Sikandar (@Sikandar1290) December 16, 2025
Calling the attack a transnational facilitation of violence, another user posted to X:
Bondi Beach was not a spontaneous tragedy. Evidence of planning, weapons familiarity, cross border travel, and emerging India linked contacts around Naveed Akram raise hard questions about transnational facilitation of violence. #BondiBeach #SydneyAttack #CrossBorderTerror pic.twitter.com/Ivkspiz1KP
— مرشد نامہ (@MurshidNama) December 16, 2025
Criticising the false connection of Pakistan to the attack, a user commented:
#bondibeach
Indian media and their people first falsely blamed Pakistan and circulating false and baseless propaganda against Pak. Now they knew basically they were Indian nationals.— Majid Chandio 🇵🇸 (@Chandio80) December 16, 2025
Appreciating the effort of the Syrian fruit shop owner for the intervention, another netizen stated:
Shot twice while stopping a gunman at a Hanukkah event in Australia’s Bondi Beach, Ahmed al-Ahmed’s courage turned him into a real-life hero. A Syrian-born fruit shop owner and father of two, his bravery saved lives when it mattered most.#BondiBeach #Australia #AhmedAlAhmed
— Hoot Republic (@HootRepublic) December 16, 2025
