One of the Islamic State-inspired Bondi terrorists was allowed to successfully apply for a gun licence just a year after his son was investigated by ASIO for his links to a Sydney-based cell of the terror group.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon confirmed on Tuesday that Sajid Akram, 50, who was shot dead by police, first applied for a firearms licence in 2015 but did not provide a photo and the application lapsed.
His son, Naveed Akram, 24, was then examined by the spy agency in 2019 due to his ties to convicted IS terrorist Isaac El Matari, and Sajid applied for a new licence in 2020 that was issued in 2023, allowing him to obtain the firearms used by the pair in the Bondi massacre.
🚨BREAKING: NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon has issued a formal correction, saying Bondi attacker Sajid Akram applied for a firearms licence on 8 October 2015 but it lapsed in 2016 after no photo was taken. A second application in 2020 was later approved and issued in 2023. pic.twitter.com/VDay71QV4M
— Australians vs. The Agenda (@ausvstheagenda) December 16, 2025
“I would like to correct a record. I have been indicating that Sajid Akram, a 50-year-old male, has held a firearms licence since 2015. Mr Akram applied for that licence on 8 October 2015, and it was recommended that it be issued in November 2015,” Commissioner Lanyon said.
“I’m advised that he did not get a photo taken, as required by that licence, and the application lapsed in 2016. A second Category AB licence was applied for by Mr Akram in 2020. That licence was recommended for issue, and issued in 2023.I think it’s important that the transparent nature of the investigation provides that change.
“The initial information had been that it had been issued in 2015, and I think it’s important to give that detail. He was licensed to hold a Category AB licence, and the firearms that we have seized were attached to that licence appropriately.”
Commissioner Lanyon also confirmed that two homemade Islamic State flags were found in Naveed’s vehicle, along with improvised explosive devices.
Neither man was on a terrorism watchlist, and a senior counter-terrorism official told ABC News that both underwent military-style training in the southern Philippines in November, returning a week before the massacre.
After refusing to say the words “Muslim” or “Islam” for two days and repeatedly deflecting to “right-wing extremism”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese conceded on Tuesday that the attack was linked to Islamic State.
“What we know already is, as part of the investigation, is it goes to motive and what is being investigated as the Commissioner has said, is that it would appear that there is evidence that this was inspired by a terrorist organisation, by ISIS,” he said.
“Some of the evidence which is being procured, including the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized are part of that. A radical, a perversion of Islam is absolutely a problem. It is something that has been identified globally as a problem as well.”
Noticer News has previously reported on farmers having their guns confiscated by police for asking MPs about elite paedophile rings, and dozens of Australian nationalists are understood to have been given Firearms Prohibition Orders by NSW Police for taking part in anti-immigration and pro-Australian activism.
Header image: Left, an Islamic State flag on the terrorist’s vehicle. Right, Sajid Akram (supplied).
