In early November, Sajid Akram, 50, and his bricklayer son Naveed, 24, travelled from Australia to the Philippines. Their destination was Davao, a city in Mindanao, the second-largest of the Philippines’ many thousands of islands — and a region in which the notorious terror organisation Islamic State is regrouping. Here, the Akrams spent four weeks receiving military-style training.
When they returned to Australia, the pair perpetrated the worst terrorist massacre in the nation’s history — murdering 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach, turning what should have been a day of bright, joyful warmth into a day of horror. If it weren’t for the bravery of citizens in thwarting the attack, the death count would have been far higher.
