Bondi shooter visited gun shop during Philippines stay

MANILA, Philippines — One of the two alleged Bondi Beach shooters visited a gun store during their stay in the Philippines, police said yesterday as they attempted to retrace the pair’s movements.

An Australian counter-terrorism team is investigating whether Sajid Akram and his son Naveed met with Islamist extremists during a nearly month-long visit to the southern island of Mindanao before the mass shooting that killed 15 people in Sydney six days ago.

The staff of Davao City’s GV Hotel told AFP this week that the two men had stayed holed up in their small room for most of their 28-day stay, leaving only briefly each morning.

“What we’ve seen is one of them visiting a gun shop,” Davao regional police spokesperson Catherine dela Rey said yesterday, adding later that it was 50-year-old Sajid Akram who had been seen.

“Our reviewing of CCTVs is ongoing so we can see the other places they visited and the people they could have spoken with,” she said.

While little has been made public at this stage of the investigation, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año told reporters on Friday there was “no way” the men could have left the city to conduct training.

“They would go out and come back after two or three hours, the longest was eight hours, but still ... that time window (would) not suffice for them to get out of Davao,” he said.

Police inquiries had also revealed that neither of the men had visited any of the city’s seven gun ranges, he said.

GV Hotel, in a statement sent to media, confirmed the men booked through a third party and were initially scheduled to arrive on Nov. 15, but arrived earlier on Nov. 1.

A GV Hotel staff, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the pair initially booked a room for seven days, but extended their stay three more times and paid in cash.

The worker said they had limited interaction with Naveed Akram, who inquired at the front desk on their second night whether the hotel sold boxes of bottled water. In another instance, Naveed asked where he could buy durian, a popular fruit in Davao. But beyond customary greetings, Naveed barely interacted with hotel staff, the worker said.

The source could not recall any interaction with Sajid Akram, the father.

“They had no visitors. They did not bring anyone else inside their room, none at all,” the worker said.

When the pair went out, Sajid brought his backpack while Naveed wore a shoulder bag. The hotel staff could not determine what the contents of the bags were and whether they brought items from outside.

Abubacar Camid, who leads a mosque community near the hotel where the Akrams stayed, said there was no indication the two visited the Muslim community surrounding the mosque. Camid said they reviewed camera footage as soon as they heard about the link to Davao.

“We did not see them here. All newcomers are vetted thoroughly,” Camid said in an interview.

Davao residents said their visit to the city had put at risk efforts to rid the Philippines’ southern islands of the stigma of extremism.

“I am a bit disheartened,” said recent graduate John Edward Mier. “For how many years, Mindanao has been trying to redeem itself (and show) that the security station is OK even if there are hotspots for extremist groups.”

President Marcos has criticized media reports that he said misleadingly portrayed the Philippines “as a training hotspot for terrorism.”

“For years, we have acted decisively to dismantle terrorist networks, to secure communities and to sustain our hard-earned peace,” he said in a speech celebrating the 90th anniversary of the country’s armed forces on Friday.

“To dismiss these gains with unfounded speculation is not acceptable.”

The Philippine military has said Mindanao’s remaining jihadists now number little more than 50, from a high of 1,257 in 2016.