The father-and-son attackers accused of carrying out the deadly shooting on Australia’s famous Bondi Beach appeared to have met with local Muslim religious leaders during their sojourn to the Philippines last month, intelligence authorities said on Sunday.
Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed, slipped out of the southern city of Davao to visit Muslim religious leaders in the city of Panabo, an agricultural community about 20 miles to the north, during their monthlong stay in November, the authorities said. Who specifically they met in the area and what was discussed are still being investigated, they added.
The suspects’ stay in Davao just ahead of their rampage on Bondi Beach in Sydney, killing 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration, has raised questions about a possible resurgence of militancy in the southern Philippines. Australian officials have described the Dec. 14 attack as an act of terrorism inspired by Islamic State ideology.
Davao is the largest city on the island of Mindanao, the country’s southern hub, which is home to a smattering of long-simmering Islamist insurgencies, some involving groups that claim loyalty to the Islamic State.
Initial information about the Akrams, provided by Australian counterterrorism experts, said that the two had been inspired by the Islamic State and were reported to have traveled to the Philippines for training. On Wednesday, the National Security Council in the Philippines said that it was unable to confirm whether the men had “received any form of training in the Philippines.”
The Philippine National Police regional director, Brig. Gen. Leon Victor Rosete, said in a statement on Sunday that officers in Davao had “examined any activities they may have conducted during their stay, including identifying the individuals they interacted with, and assessing possible links or support networks.”
Local police, backed by intelligence operatives in coordination with the Australian intelligence agency, are conducting “backtracking operations to establish their movements during their stay,” he said. “This included the review of CCTV footage, hotel records, travel data and other available intelligence information,” he said, stressing that intelligence gathering was continuing.
Yusop Pasigan, the grand mufti in Davao, said in an interview that he had been in touch with the authorities and had distributed photos of the Akrams to mosques in the city. He said he had appealed to anyone who had any interactions with the two men to let the police know, but that as far as he knows, they were not seen in any of Davao City’s estimated 70 mosques.
“When the Salaam Police came here after the attacks in Australia, I was shocked,” he said, referring to a specialized police unit that is involved with Muslim concerns.
Members of the security staff at the mosques, too, are former police officers backed by their own extensive intelligence network, he said.
Mr. Pasigan had displayed the photographs of the two suspects on the doors of the Jamjom Masjid, one of the biggest mosques in Davao, so that the young men in attendance would see them as they collected their footwear upon exiting.
The poster asks people to contact the authorities if they saw or interacted with the “Bondi Beach, Australia Shooting Suspects.”
As far as he knows, Mr. Pasigan said, the Davao City police have received no feedback from the local community yet.
The scars of extremism and militancy runs deep in Davao. In 2016, a bombing at a popular night market killed at least 14 people. The authorities later blamed it on a small band of militants that had been trying to gain the attention of the Islamic State.
A year later, Islamic State affiliates helped lead a larger attack on the city of Marawi, leading to a monthslong battle that left over a thousand militants, government forces and civilians dead.
Security remains a concern in many areas of the south, which is home to a sizable Muslim minority and where decades of separatism have put a stranglehold on growth and prosperity. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which was the main Muslim separatist group, signed a peace deal with the Philippine government in 2014 and now controls an autonomous state. But many from its ranks, mostly battle-hardened guerrillas, joined the Islamic State and continue to pose a threat.
There has not be a resurgence of violence recently, however, and the Philippine government has been adamant that there is no evidence indicating the Southeast Asian nation was being used as a training hub for violent extremism.
Sidney Jones, an adjunct associate professor at New York University who has studied militancy across Southeast Asia for many years, said that the capacity of homegrown terrorist networks on Mindanao — those that survived Marawi and successive military offensives — was low.
The two suspects stayed in room 315 of the GV Hotel in Davao City from Nov. 1 to 28, the hotel staff said.
They paid about 930 pesos (roughly $16 dollars) a night, paying one week at a time as they extended their stay. It is a spartan room, with two single cots, and is walking distance from the Davao city hall as well as the San Pedro Cathedral, a Catholic church bombed twice in the 1980s and 1990s by militants.
The men were cordial, but seemed evasive and not at all friendly, according to the staff.
“They stayed for almost a month, and we hardly had any interaction with them,” said Angelica Ytang, 20, a hotel receptionist. “They mostly stayed in their room.
“They were not approachable. They just smiled at us. Sometimes they asked for water and where to buy groceries, that’s all. I never saw them with other people, they just came and went, came and went,” she said. “We never saw anyone picking them up, either. They mostly just walked.”
Ms. Ytang surmised that the two must be businessmen or tourists, or they could have relatives among the large local population of Indian expatriates here. “One time, the son, Naveed, asked where he could buy durian,” she said, remembering that it was perhaps one of the friendlier chats she had with him.
In contrast, the father, Sajid, seemed introverted. “He avoided eye contact and never greeted me at the counter,” Ms. Ytang said.
The day that the attack in Australia was broadcast on television, the hotel staff instantly recognized the two, and were filled with a mix of dread and awe, as well as the sudden realization that “they could have done that to us,” Ms. Ytang said.
Mr. Ermelito Ligod, a maintenance worker at the hotel, said he did not feel like the two were particularly religious. He said they never asked for directions to the local mosques.
At the Jamjom mosque, groups of young men emerged after noonday prayers on Saturday. They crowded under a mango tree and denounced the attacks in Australia, the backlash of which, they said, would be felt locally.
For Hassanal Abas, a 28-year-old father of two, the attack has once again cast a shadow on Islam. “They should blame the people, not the religion,” he argued heatedly.
“We are aware of these photos,” he said, referring to the Akrams’ mug shots. “But no one knows about them here. What they did is destroy the good name of Islam.” He recalled what he said were “painful experiences” for Muslims when they were labeled bad people after the previous attacks in Marawi and Davao.
Policemen in full-battle gear patrolled parts of the city after news that the two suspects had stayed in Davao emerged.
Gagan Tanda, 34, a second-generation son of Indian migrants here who owns a restaurant, said the police had come around to ask if two suspects had eaten there. They asked to review the CCTV footage too, but he said his employees swore they had not spotted the duo.
“We were shocked to hear they lived here in Davao briefly,” Mr. Tanda said, but he also said that many of his countrymen transit through the Philippines to study.
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