Gunman’s phone may have pinged in area with a history of extremism: source

A staff member said that in Davao City, Sajid Akram visited a small gun shop a few hundred meters away from the hotel. This tagline said Akram was standing side by side, looking at pictures of guns on the wall and displays of protective vests. He was memorable to the staff as he did not respond when asked if there was anything he could help with.

The men are also believed to have visited a resort about seven kilometers from their hotel and an Islamic center called Mercy Islamic Foundation (MIF) about 2.5 kilometers from the hotel.

MIF president Sheikh Mohammed Habeb Al-Khulaqi said it was impossible to know whether the Akrams had visited because some 600 people turned up for Friday prayers. But he said the center had handed over all CCTV footage to investigators and wanted to help in any way possible.

“We are a team,” he said. “There is no mercy for such people. Whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims, they are the cancer of this country.”

Sheikh Al-Khulaqi said violent extremists in Mindanao do not recognize MIF as legitimate because MIF’s documents and permits are registered by “non-believers” in Davao’s Catholic-majority city hall.

Philippine authorities confirmed a line of inquiry first reported by News Corp; investigators were looking into the movements of two other Sydney men whose journey to Davao City overlapped with part of the Akrams’ stay. But there were no red flags yet, and the Akrams and the other Sydney couple could have been and remained strangers.

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A spokesman for the Philippine National Police said there was no evidence yet to support a report in international media suggesting the Akrams visited a town called Panabo, about 30 kilometers from Davao City.

Muslimin Sema, chief of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), an Islamic separatist group that signed a peace agreement with Manila in 1996, said aiding the Akrams in their murderous efforts while in the Philippines would be a “national concern.”

“If there were such meetings, they would be hidden from the public. This is possible,” he said. “Even if people with these ideas come here, we have to make sure they don’t find people with complaints against the government.”

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