Bondi Beach attacker was from Hyderabad, left India 27 years ago

Once the shooters’ link to India emerged, the Telangana police shared details of the Akram family. According to the police, Sajid has a B.Com degree and migrated to Australia in November 1998 in search of work. There, he married a woman of European origin, with whom he had two children – Naveed and a daughter. Since then, he is believed to have returned to India six times, with his family stating that he had limited contact with them and that he even skipped his father’s funeral in 2009.

Boys lay flowers at a flower memorial for victims of Sunday’s shooting at the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo)

“The factors that led to the radicalisation of Sajid and his son Naveed appear to have no connection with India or any local influence in Telangana,” Telangana Director General of Police B Reddy said in a statement. “Telangana police have no adverse record against Sajid during his stay in India prior to his departure in 1998.”

Akram’s visits to India – the most recent was in 2022 – were for private matters such as disposing of an ancestral property. When that sale didn’t go through, he swiftly returned to Australia, officials said. “Even when their father passed away, no one saw Sajid,” an elderly neighbour told The Indian Express. The DGP confirmed, “It is understood that he did not travel to India at the time.”

“His brother has been running the house ever since then,” said an official.

In the thickly populated Tolichowki area, as word of the family’s link to the Sydney shooting spread, a crowd began to gather outside their bungalow, which was padlocked when The Indian Express visited. “They were here till Tuesday afternoon. Then the police came, and with them the media. They left soon after,” a neighbour said.

The Akrams used to live near Hyderabad’s Charminar till 2002. “Somewhere between 2002 and 2004, they moved to the Tolichowli neighbourhood. In 2009, when Sajid’s father fell ill, he did not come to Hyderabad,” an intelligence official told The Indian Express.

“The family is quiet; they keep to themselves. We have hardly seen Sajid here,” a neighbour said.

According to The New York Times, Akram was a licensed holder of six firearms that were registered to him legally. Officials previously said that Naveed had come to the authorities’ attention in 2019, but that it was determined he did not pose an immediate threat, NYT reported, adding that Akram was also interviewed at the time.

Australian news media reported that the 2019 investigation was over Naveed’s links to Isaac El Matari, a self-proclaimed Islamic State commander based in Sydney who was convicted of plotting a terrorist attack and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2021.

Police in Telangana, meanwhile, said they are cooperating with central agencies and other counterparts on the case.