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The gunman allegedly shot dead by police during an attack on Bondi Beach on Sunday was originally from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad and his family was unaware of his “radical mentality”, Indian police said.
In a statement giving more details about the man who allegedly carried out the attack with his son as an accomplice, police in India’s southern Telangana state said 50-year-old Sajid Akram was pursuing a commerce degree in the state capital, Hyderabad, a large and bustling technology and pharmaceutical hub.
Akram later moved to Australia in November 1998 to find work and married a woman described as being of European descent, with whom he had a son and a daughter.
In the police statement, it was stated that the person went to India six times for family-related reasons such as property issues and visiting his family, but did not return when his father died.
He noted that Akram’s family appeared unaware that he had “radicalized” and that it had no connection to India, where police had “no negative record” of him before he left in 1998.
“Family members have expressed no knowledge of his radical mentality or activities, or the circumstances that led to his radicalization,” the statement said.
“The factors that led to the radicalization of Sajid Akram and his son Naveed appear to have no connection with India or any local influence in Telangana.
When Reuters visited Akram’s family home, “Zehra Cottage” in the Al Hasnath community in Hyderabad’s Tolichowki area, a middle-class Muslim neighbourhood, the doors of the three-storey building were closed. No family members were visible.
Most neighbors did not want to talk to journalists. One of the neighbors said that a doctor lived in the house, referring to Akram’s brother. He said that his elderly mother also stayed with them.
“We heard about it [the brother] “He is a doctor,” said the neighbor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“This is a quiet and peaceful colony. We have never interacted with them or the family. No one in the colony has a criminal history or has ever come to the attention of the police.”
Reuters
