The two suspects in a deadly mass shooting at Syndey’s Bondi Beach carried out “tactical” training in the countryside, police said yesterday, as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese apologized to the country’s Jewish community and vowed tougher laws against extremism.
Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram are accused of targeting a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in almost three decades.
Police documents released yesterday said the two had carried out “firearms training” in what was believed to be the New South Wales countryside prior to the shooting.
Photo: AFP
They said the suspects “meticulously planned” the attack for months, releasing pictures showing them firing shotguns and moving in what they described as a “tactical manner.”
The pair also recorded a video in October railing against “Zionists” while sitting in front of a flag of the Islamic State (ISIS) group and detailing their motivations for the attack, police said.
They also made a nighttime reconnaissance trip to Bondi Beach just days before the killings, documents showed.
The suspects also threw homemade pipe and tennis ball bombs at onlookers during the attack, but they failed to detonate, police said.
Australia on Sunday observed a minute’s silence at 6:47pm — exactly one week since the first reports of gunfire.
Facing growing political pressure over the attack, Albanese yesterday said he would push for tough new laws creating “an aggravated offense for hate preaching.”
“We’re not going to let the ISIS-inspired terrorists win. We won’t let them divide our society, and we’ll get through this together,” Albanese told reporters.
He also apologized to the Jewish community “and our nation as a whole” for what took place.
“The government will work every day to protect Jewish Australians, to protect the fundamental right as Australians that they have to be proud of who they are, to practice their faith, to educate their children and to engage in Australian society in the fullest way possible,” he added.
The government has flagged a suite of reforms to gun ownership and hate speech laws, as well as a review of police and intelligence services.
Albanese also announced a sweeping buyback scheme to “get guns off our streets.”
It is the largest gun buyback since 1996, when Australia cracked down on firearms in the wake of a mass shooting that killed 35 people at Port Arthur.
The government of New South Wales — where the shooting took place — yesterday recalled its parliament for two days to introduce what it called the “toughest firearm reforms in the country.”
“We can’t pretend that the world is the same as it was before that terrorist incident on Sunday,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told reporters. “I’d give anything to go back a week, a month, two years, to ensure that didn’t happen, but we need to make sure that we take steps so that it never happens again.”
The new rules would cap the number of guns an individual can own to four, or 10 for exempted individuals such as farmers.
The legislation would also ban the display of “terrorist symbols,” including the flag of the Islamic State, which was found in a vehicle linked to one of the alleged shooters.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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