‘Terrified’ Sydney man misidentified as Bondi shooter

SYDNEY: A Sydney man said he had received death threats and was “terrified” to leave his home Monday after his photo was widely shared online as the gunman responsible for the Bondi Beach shooting.

A father and son duo opened fire on a Jewish festival at Australia’s best-known beach on Sunday evening, killing 15 people, including a child, and wounding 42 more.

Authorities have condemned the attack as an act of terrorism, though they have not named the two shooters – one killed at the scene, and the other now in hospital.

However, Australian public broadcaster ABC said the alleged assailant was Naveed Akram from the western Sydney suburb of Bonnyrigg, quoting an anonymous official, and other local media reported that police had raided his home.

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Photos of a beaming man in a green Pakistan cricket jersey pinged across social media.

Some of the posts were shared thousands of times, drawing vitriolic comments.

But the photo was taken from the Facebook profile of a different Naveed Akram, who pleaded Monday for people to stop the misinformation in a video published by the Pakistan Consulate of Sydney.

“Per media reports, one of the shooters’ name is Naveed Akram and my name is Naveed Akram as well,” he said in the video.

“That is not me. I have nothing to do with the incident or that person,” he said, condemning the “terrible” Bondi Beach shooting.

“I just want everyone’s help to help me stop this propaganda,” he said, asking for users to report accounts that misused his photo, which he had shared in a 2019 post.

Life-threatening’

The 30-year-old, who lives in a northwestern suburb of Sydney, told AFP he first heard around 9:30 pm on Sunday that he had been falsely identified as the shooter.

“I could not even sleep last night,” Akram told AFP by phone, adding he deleted all the “terrible” messages he got.

“I’m terrified. I could not go outside, like it’s a life-threatening issue, so I don’t want to risk anything… my family is worried as well, so it’s quite a hard time for me.”

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He asked the Pakistan Consulate to put out the video because relatives in the country’s Punjab province were getting phone calls as well.

“It was destroying my image, my family’s image,” he said.

“People started to call them. They were worried, and they have told the police over there.”

The Pakistan native moved to Australia in 2018 to attend Central Queensland University and later did a masters at Sydney’s Holmes Institute.

Today he runs a car rental business, and he said Australia is “the perfect country”.

“I love this country. I have never had any safety issues here, like everyone is so nice, the people are so nice here,” Akram said.

“It’s only this incident that has caused me this trauma.”