One of the alleged Bondi Beach shooters was seen at a gun store in Davao City during a month-long stay, Philippine police say.
MANILA: One of the two alleged Bondi Beach shooters visited a gun store during their stay in the Philippines, police confirmed on Saturday.
Authorities are retracing the movements of Sajid Akram and his son Naveed, who stayed in Davao City for nearly a month before the Sydney mass shooting.
An Australian counter-terrorism team is investigating whether the pair met with Islamist extremists on the southern island of Mindanao.
Hotel staff said the two men largely remained in their small room during their 28-day stay, leaving only briefly each morning.
Davao regional police spokeswoman Catherine Dela Rey stated it was 50-year-old Sajid Akram who had been seen at the gun shop.
“Our reviewing of CCTVs is ongoing so we can see the other places they visited and the people they could have spoken with,” she said.
National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said there was “no way” the men could have left the city for training given their short outings.
He also confirmed neither man had visited any of the city’s seven gun ranges.
President Ferdinand Marcos criticised media reports portraying the Philippines as a “training hotspot for terrorism”.
“For years, we have acted decisively to dismantle terrorist networks, to secure communities, and to sustain our hard-earned peace,” he said in a speech.
“To dismiss these gains with unfounded speculation is not acceptable.”
The Philippine military stated jihadists in Mindanao now number little more than 50, down from a high of 1,257 in 2016.
