Bondi Beach shooter Sajid Akram brought his European-origin wife to Hyderabad in 2001 for a nikah ceremony, and his son Naveed Akram – a co-accused in the terror attack – around 2004-05 to introduce him to his parents, The Indian Express has learnt based on conversations with investigators who have questioned close relatives.
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After 15 people were killed in the mass shooting that occurred during a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, law enforcement agencies identified the gunmen as Sajid (50) and his son Naveed (24). While the former left for Australia in 1998, the latter was born there.
“Sajid’s family had to be questioned because we needed to know whether they had any inkling about the attack. They cooperated. We have not found anything suspicious so far,” a Telangana intelligence official who questioned them told The Indian Express.
“They seemed shocked to know he (Sajid) could do something like this. They immediately told us all they knew about his visits to Hyderabad,” the officer said.
Sajid, an Indian passport holder, moved to Australia in search of employment after completing his bachelor’s degree in commerce. He married a woman of European origin, and they had two children – Naveed and a daughter.
“In 2001, he came to Hyderabad to introduce his wife to his parents. They performed a nikah for them,” an intelligence source said. In 2004-05, he visited the house in Tolichowki with Naveed. “He wanted his parents to meet his son,” the intelligence officer said. Sajid’s father died in 2009.
In 2012 and 2016, he came to Hyderabad to sell his share in the ancestral property. “We were wondering whether he still owns property in Hyderabad. That is not the case. He did not have a home to come to, other than his brother’s house in Tolichowki,” the intelligence officer said.
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There is no adverse record of any kind in Sajid’s name during his stay in India, Telangana DGP B Shivadhar Reddy had said in a press statement on Tuesday. “Sajid and his son are believed to have been radicalised in Australia,” an intelligence source claimed.
What remains a mystery for intelligence officials in Telangana is why Sajid never got an Australian citizenship. “His family said that he had applied for citizenship but never got it. We are yet to confirm that,” an intelligence source said.
In Hyderabad’s Tolichowki, the family’s two-storey house has meanwhile become an attraction of sorts, with a crowd gathering again on Wednesday.
Sajid’s elder brother, a general physician, has been living in this house since 2002, after they moved there from Hyderabad’s Charminar area. The brother’s wife, two college-going children and his mother live there, too. “They do not want to be seen,” a neighbour told The Indian Express.
