The father and son accused of carrying out the terrorist attack at Australia’s Bondi Beach spent a month in an “ISIS training hotspot” in the Philippines — returning just weeks before carrying out Sunday’s massacre, according to a new report.
Police have opened a probe into why Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed, 24, recently traveled to the Southeast Asian country alone without any other family, the Daily Telegraph reported.
“There’s areas down there that are very dangerous … (with) training camps and the like,” one source told the outlet.
“It has become a well-trodden path for the Islamic State through Southeast Asia and into the Philippines ever since 2019.”
While Naveed had been under the eye of Australia’s Security Intelligence Organization since 2019, he wasn’t deemed “an immediate threat.”
Officials are investigating whether the Akrams had “self-radicalized” or if they were influenced during their trip overseas, according to the Telegraph.
During the initial investigation, police found two Islamic State flags inside the Akrams’ car, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Sajid was killed in the attack that left 15 people dead and more than 40 injured in Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach during a Hanukkah celebration.
Naveed was injured and is currently in police custody.
Parts of the Philippines are among the most dangerous terror hotspots in the world, giving the country a ranking of 20 in the Global Terrorism Index.
The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) warned that ISIS has an active branch in the south of the country — where the government has battled Islamist insurgencies for decades.
The US estimates that ISIS-Philippines has 300 to 500 members, with at least 22 terror attacks committed by the group in 2024.
The group was responsible for the five-month bloody siege in the city of Marawi — 500 miles south of Manila — that left 1,200 dead before the Filipino government was able to regain control.
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