Naveed Akram and his father Sajid Akram killed 15 people at a Chanukah celebration on Bondi Beach, December 14, 2025. Naveed was 24. Sajid was shot dead by police at the scene. Naveed was critically wounded, woke from a coma on December 17, and was charged with 59 offences including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act.

ASIO opened a file on Akram in October 2019. The trigger was Isaac El Matari's arrest three months earlier. El Matari had declared himself "Commander of IS in Australia." ABC News reporting after the attack confirmed Akram was "close" to El Matari. The investigation ran six months. October 2019 to March 2020. Then ASIO closed it. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese later confirmed the assessment: "no indication of any ongoing threat." Akram was never put on a terrorism watchlist.

In 2019, at 17 or 18, Akram appeared in Street Dawah videos. CNN identified footage showing him outside a suburban train station, urging strangers to embrace Islam. In one clip he tells two young boys that "the law of Allah" is "more important than anything else." The videos were recorded weeks before El Matari's July 2019 arrest. They've since been deleted. Senator James Paterson claimed Akram "was a worshipper at AMDC and acted as a street preacher for Mr Haddad's Dawah Van," though the sourcing on this is unclear. What's confirmed: counterterrorism officials said Akram had "links to Wisam Haddad."

November 1-28, 2025. Naveed and Sajid Akram flew to Davao City, Mindanao. Twenty-seven days at the GV Hotel, Room 315. Hotel staff said they left the room about an hour per day. No visitors. Cash payments, week by week. Philippine investigators confirmed the Akrams visited Panabo in Davao del Norte and met "Muslim religious leaders." Identities unknown. Australian security sources claimed the Akrams received "military-style training." The Philippine government disputed this. The trip ended 16 days before the attack. No intelligence alerts were triggered, despite Akram's 2019-2020 ASIO file.

The attack came at 6:45 PM, Sunday, December 14, 2025. A Chanukah celebration. About 1,000 people. The firearms were legal, registered to Sajid Akram. Four improvised explosive devices were deployed. All failed. The NSW Police Commissioner called it terrorism that evening. ISIS claimed responsibility four days later in Al-Naba newsletter issue 526: "The Glorious Deed of Sydney." Police found a manifesto video on Akram's phone. Pledge to ISIS. Grievances against Israel.

What the attack exposed: ASIO closed Akram's file in March 2020. No further monitoring for five and a half years. The Philippines trip triggered nothing. And then the firearms. Sajid Akram applied for a licence in 2020, one year after his son came to ASIO attention. The NSW Firearms Registry delayed for 2.5 years, then approved it in 2023. No cross-check between ASIO's terrorism database and the firearms registry. Father and son lived at the same Bonnyrigg address. By December 14, Sajid owned six high-powered registered firearms.

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