Man Dressed in Pakistan Cricket Jersey Misidentified as Bondi Beach Attacker

We found that the man was being incorrectly identified as one of the shooters in the Bondi beach terror attack.

Fact-Check | The man dressed in the Pakistani jersey is being misidentified as the alleged shooter in the Bondi beach terror attack.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A photo of a man dressed in Pakistani cricket team jersey, along with other visuals, is going viral on the internet with users identifying him as the alleged shooter in the Bondi beach terror attack case in Australia.

What did the viral post say?: An X (formerly Twitter) handle uploaded the visuals with a caption that said, "Naveed Akram from Lahore Pakistan and live in Australia who involved in bondi beach mass shooting. 10 people shot dead during Jews Hanukkah Festival. pray for Australia (sic)."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

The above post had over three lakh views on the platform. More archives of similar claims could be found here, here, and here.

What are the facts?: The claim is misleading. The man dressed in the Pakistani jersey was reportedly identified as a Pakistani man named 'Sheikh Naveed Akram'.

• We found that he is being incorrectly labelled as one of the alleged shooters in the Bondi beach terror attack.

What led us to the truth?: On conducting a simple reverse image search on the viral image, we came across a news report published in a media outlet named The Nightly.

• The report said that a man who shared the name as the 24-year-old shooter called Naveed Akram has spoken out after the former's photo went viral.

• The man clarified that the photo of the man dressed in a Pakistani jersey was him and that he was not involved in the Bondi Beach terror attack.

The report was published on 15 December.

(Source: The Nightly/Screenshot)

Sheikh Naveed Akram clarifies: Team WebQoof found the official Facebook handle of Akram, where he had issued a clarification mentioning that his photo was being falsely used.

• The post shared on 14 December said, "This photo being circulated is NOT the person involved in the Bondi incident. That is me, and I am completely innocent and have no connection whatsoever to what happened. Someone is falsely using my picture, which is putting my safety, reputation, and well-being at risk..."

• Next, we found a video of Akram uploaded on an X premium handle named 'Abbasi' on 15 December.

• He could be heard mentioning that he has been living in Australia since 2018. Akram condemned the Bondi terror attack and said that his name is the same as the one of the reported shooters.

• He further mentioned that his photo from Facebook was taken and peddled by several accounts incorrectly linking it to the incident.

About the viral image: On further going through Akram's Facebook handle, we found the viral photo uploaded on his account on 4 November 2019.

Details about the shooters: A report published by Sky News said that a father and a son have been identified as the suspected gunmen in the recent terror attack.

• While one of them was identified as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, the other shooter was Sajid Akram, a 50-year-old.

• The report further said that the father was killed at the scene, while was son was shot and wounded.

The report was published on 16 December.

(Source: Sky News/Screenshot)

Conclusion: It is evident that the man dressed in Pakistani cricket jersey is being misidentified as one of the shooters in Bondi beach terror attack.

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