Bondi Beach shooter Naveed Akram charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder

Naveed Akram, the alleged shooter in Australia’s Bondi Beach massacre, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder.

Naveed, 24, has also been charged with one count of committing a terrorist act, 40 counts of wounding with intent to murder, one count of placing an explosive, one charge of discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and one charge of publicly displaying a terrorist symbol, according to Guardian.

Naveed and his 50-year-old father, Sajid Akram, on Sunday attacked a Jewish celebration of Hanukkah at the Bondi Beach in Australia’s Sydney. They killed at least 15 persons and injured 40 others. While Sajid was killed in a confrontation with the police, Naveed was taken into custody.

Naveed was formally charged after he came out of the coma from his injuries.

Bondi beach shooters linked to Islamic State

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that Naveed and Sajid were driven by the Islamic State’s ideology.

Islamic State flags and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were recovered from Naveed’s vehicle, according to CBS News.

Following the attack, investigators recovered six licensed guns that belonged to the father-son duo at the scene, as per the police.

While Naveed was born in Australia and is an Australian citizen, his father Sajid emigrated to Australia from India in 1998 and held an Indian passport at the time of his death.

Separately, officials have said that Naveed and Sajid had travelled to the Mindanao province in the Philippines , which has a long history of Islamist insurgency and known Islamic State footprint. In 2017, the province’s Marawi city witnessed a battle between government forces and Islamic State for nearly five months. The Islamic State affiliates had sieged large parts of the city and the government waged an all-out war to retake the city and flush out terrorists.