More doubts are being raised about the legitimacy of terrorist Sajid Akram being issued a firearms licence after NSW police had delayed its approval for three years, then granted it within months of the Minns Government coming to power.
Confidential sources have told Sporting Shooter that Akram’s five-year licence number 411489664 was issued on 8/9/2023, less than six months after the Minns Government replaced the previous Coalition Government.
The licence application had been under consideration for roughly 2½ years under the Coalition Government.
Akram had initially applied for a firearms licence in 2015 but did not follow through on it and the application lapsed in 2016.
He re-applied in 2020 but the NSW Firearms Registry, for reasons not yet known, did not immediately approve it, instead delaying for a period much longer than is typical for an application. This was just after his son, Naveed Akram, had been investigated by ASIO for links to extremists.
Even a delayed approval rarely takes more than a year in the state.
“The question is, if NSW Police had information in 2020 that caused them not to issue, what changed?” our source, who did not want to be named, said.
“Was change of government the only factor or was it something else?”
Akram’s licensed address was the same as is listed for his son who had been on a terrorist watch list.
Such an association is reason for not granting a firearms licence in NSW, or revoking an existing licence.
Questions have also been raised by former Defence deputy secretary Peter Jennings, who told Sky News, “There were not one or two, but several occasions when red flags should have been raised” about the terrorist’s licence.
People are wondering whether those flags were raised during that long period during which the licence application was pending, and if they were, why they were ignored.
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