Sydney [Australia], December 16: A man in Sydney, Australia, says he has received death threats after a photo of him circulated online as the gunman in the Bondi Beach massacre.
A father and son opened fire on a Jewish festival at Australia's most popular beach on December 14, killing 15 people, including a child, and injuring 42 others, according to AFP.
As of today, December 15th, Australian police announced that the two gunmen in the Sydney shooting on December 14th were Sajid Akram (50 years old) and Naveed Akram (24 years old). The father was shot dead by police at the scene, while the son was critically injured and is being treated in hospital under police supervision, according to The Guardian .
Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said today that Sajid arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa, switched to a spouse visa in 2001, and after overseas trips, he stayed on permanent residency three times, according to The Sydney Morning Herald . Police confirmed Sajid is from Lahore in the Punjab province of Pakistan, while Naveed was born in Australia.
Before Australian police released the identities of the two suspects , Australia's ABC News quoted an official as revealing that the suspect was Naveed Akram from the Bonnyrigg suburb of western Sydney, and other local media reported that police had raided the suspect's home.
Photos of a smiling man in a green Pakistan cricket jersey have gone viral on social media. Some posts have been shared thousands of times, attracting hateful comments.
However, that photo was taken from the personal Facebook page of another 30-year-old man also named Naveed Akram, also from the Punjab province of Pakistan. This man had urged people to stop spreading misinformation in a video released by the Pakistani Consulate in Sydney on December 15, according to AFP.
"According to media reports, one of the shooters was named Naveed Akram, and my name is also Naveed Akram," Akram (30) said in the video. "That wasn't me. I have nothing to do with the incident or that person," Akram said, condemning the "horrific" shooting at Bondi Beach.
"I just want people to help me stop this from spreading," Akram (30) emphasized, asking users to report accounts that have misused his photo, which he shared in a post in 2019.
The 30-year-old man, who lives in a northwestern suburb of Sydney, told AFP that he first heard around 9:30 p.m. on December 14 (local time) that he had been mistakenly identified as the shooter.
"I couldn't even sleep last night," Akram told AFP by phone, adding that he had deleted all the "horrific" messages he had received.
"I'm terrified. I can't go outside, it's like it's a life-threatening situation, so I don't want to risk anything... my family is worried too, so this is a pretty difficult time for me," he said.
Akram requested that the Pakistani consulate release the video because his relatives in Punjab province also received threatening calls. "This is ruining my image, the image of my family," he said.
This man of Pakistani origin moved to Australia in 2018 to study at Central Queensland University and then pursued a master's degree at the Holmes Institute in Sydney, according to AFP. Akram now runs a car rental business, and he says Australia is "the perfect country."
"I love this country. I've never had any safety problems here; everyone is so kind, the people here are so good. Only this incident has caused me such psychological trauma," Akram shared.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
