According to posts on social media, there was an unexplained altercation between two people carrying Pakistani flags and some Jewish youth assembled on the Bondi beach for their Hanukkah celebration. The incident surely did not lead to the mass shooting which was planned. But how the two people came on the scene where a large number of Jews had assembled for celebrating the commemoration.

SYDNEY, Dec 17: The police spoke with the 24-year-old surviving suspect in Sydney's Bondi beach mass shooting in the hospital on Tuesday (local time). He is out of coma.The details are yet to be released.

Naveed Akram and his father Sajid Akram, 50, killed 15 people and wounded 40 others in the mass shooting at a gathering of Jews attending Hanukkah event on Australia's beach on Sunday.

The father-son duo allegedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" as they began shooting at the gathering, according to ABC News. The father was shot and killed by a police detective and the son was critically injured and hospitalized, officials said.

The duo had told their family they were on a fishing trip in Jervis Bay over the weekend but rented a room at Campsie near the beach. Naveed’s mother, Verena, on Monday told the poice at their home at Bonnyrigg her son spoke to her on Sunday.

ISIS connection

Police recovered four weapons, IEDs and an ISIS flag from their car at the scene and on Monday afternoon seized pamphlets and two more weapons from the rented room in Campsie.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters the shooters were inspired by the terrorist organization ISIS.

A footage from the scene shows one of the gunmen, dressed in a black shirt and white pants (Sajid), holding a black bag and standing next to the Campbell Parade car park as he fires into the crowd gathered on the lawn nearby.

Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales told reporters, "They (the police) engaged the gunmen on the footbridge with handguns. The offenders had long-range rifles and New South Wales police officers were responsible for killing one of them and shooting the other one and as a result saving many, many people's lives. Now there are two officers in critical care in New South Wales hospitals."

The Islamic State of East Asia (ISEA), a branch of the ISIS terror group, has been a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia since 2017. Reportedly there are links between elements in Australia and terrorist groups in the Philippines, espcially in one of its islands, where the duo visited last month. The purpose of their visit is not known. Social media posted unconfirmed reports that they also visited Pakistan early this month, possibly due to mistaken identiy.

The police said the shooting was an anti-semitic terrorist attack on the Jews attending a Hanukkah event at the beach.

Sajid Akram

Meanwhile, Telangana DGP said in a press statement on Tuesday that Sajid Akram (50), born into a Muslim family in Hyderabad, visited India six times after he migrated to Australia on a student visa in 1998 after completing graduation, mostly for family matters. He last came to India in 2022 on a two-week visit. Preliminary investigation does not establish any terror links he has in India, the police said.

Sajid Akram married Ms Venera Grosso, a European, and settled in Australia, but still holds the Indian passport. He also has a daughter— both children were born in Australia and hold Australian citizenship. Australian Government sources also confirmed Sajid Akram continues to hold the Indian passport. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Monday Sajid “arrived in 1998 on a student visa, transferred in 2001 to a partner visa.

Naveed Akram

Sajid and his son Naveed Akram both were inspired by ISIS ideoigy, investigation has found.

Naveed was looking for work after he lost his bricklaying job about two months ago, when the company was shut.

He appeared to be tagged in a 2022 social media post showing he had passed his Koran studies at Al-Murad Institute, which teaches Arabic and Koran studies in Heckenberg, also in western Sydney. The post has since been removed.

The Gurmans

Four people tried to stop the Bondi terrorists and three of them were killed, in three stages. And that explains how the massacre unfolded.

According to Sydney Herald, Boris and Sofia Gurman, a Russian Jewish couple living in Bondi, were the first to encounter the gunmen as they alighted from their car at the foot of the overbrdge. The couple were walking along Campbell Parade across the beach when Sajid Akram emerged with a rifle from his car, an Islamic State flag draped across its windscreen, parked next to the footbridge. Thousands of people cross from Campbell Parade to Bondi Beach via the footbridge a day.

Some reports say the Gurmans disarmed Sajid Akram before the shooting began. Which is unbelievable as how did they know for sure two persons carrying guns were going to shoot the gathering! Possibly, they started firing and Boris overpowered Sajid and seized his weapon.

A dashcam footage shows Boris pushing down Akram onto the road and taking his rifle. But another shows Akram charging back, taking the rifle and shooting dead the couple at close range.

Then Sajid and Naveed continued shooting at the gatheing.

Just a 100 metres away from where the Gurmans were killed, Ahmed al Ahmed, a passer-by, caught Sajid from behind, wrestled with him and seized the weapon but suffered gun shot injuries. Reuven Morrison (62), who threw bricks at Sajid as he retreated towards the footbridge, was killed.

Sajid retrieved another gun from his son before taking his position on the bridge with Naveed. The due resumed intense shooting from the bridge. A police detective who arrived on the scene shot Sajid down. His son was also injured.

Ahmed al Ahmed

Ahmed al Ahmed (44), who wrestled the gun from Sajid and got shot at, is in St George Hospital. He said he doesn’t regret what he did. He had five bullet wounds on his left arm. One bullet was still not taken out from his left shoulder Tuesday night.

Ahmed is father of two daughters aged five and six. He arrived in Australia in 2006 from Syria as a refugee and runs a shop. He is an Australian citizen now.

Ahmed was in Bondi on Sunday with his cousin, Jozay Alkanj. The cousins were passing by the Hanukkah event. They were offered food but they declined, and wanted coffee. They were taking coffee when the shooting began. Ahmed moved towards the gunman through the car park, tackling him and disarming him—getting shot at four times.

A GoFundMe crowdfunding page set up for Ahmed's treatment by CarHub Australia has received $1.7 million from 29,000 donors till Tuesday.

The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.

Many of the victims were charred beyond recognition, making identification difficult. Three hundred nineteen body parts have been sent for DNA matching with relatives to determine the identities.

• The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line provides Kashmir with all-weather connectivity and integrates the Valley with the rest of India.
• The saying 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' is now a dream come true.
• The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower. (Video: File)

A comment on social media on Kanimozhi's answer on the question of national language read: "Daughter of Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi. Delivered the Birthday Present to her Father!!" (Karunanidhi was born on June 3, 1924) (Today's headlines )

Trump said, "Elon is not really leaving" and will be "back and forth" to the White House because DOGE is his "baby." "I think he’s going to be doing a lot of things.”

Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.

PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.

Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people. (Today's headlines )

"Coming from a system like in England, empowering," she says she never had an idea of this sort of experience... being asked to “socialise with middle-aged men” who financed the event...humiliating...

Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.

Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.

As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.

The committee headed by justice Kurian Joseph will study Centre-State relations and make proposals to ensure foolproof separation of powers.

"It's a big victory not just for Tamil Nadu but for all Indian States. DMK will continue to struggle for and win State autonomy and Federal polity," Chief Minister MK Stalin said.

Of 2.08 km in length, it features 99 spans and a 72.5-metre vertical lift span that rises up to a height of 17 metres, facilitating smooth movement of ships while ensuring seamless train services to the holy town of Rameswaram on Pamban island.

ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!

What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America! (Today's headlines )

PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).

In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.

THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.

The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.

Suddenly these colonial clerks feel this effortless, little rule will tremendously enhance security and convenience for the railway passengers manifold. More stations will be covered in the next 77 years! (Also See: New Delhi station stampede... What went wrong?)

ANALYSIS: "The standard operating procedure for deportations by aircraft used by ICE that is effective from 2012 provides for the use of restraints," says the Government. That means, it is taken for granted the US will set the standard for deportations. For another, the Government is more interested in comparing with what happened in 2012 under a different Government to justify its own compliance! No surprise, others are trampling upon us. (How we conduct ourselves inside decides, inherently, how we are treated outside) Thirdly, the Government blamed the gangs doing the business of human trafficking for the illegal migration. For all the crimes taking place in the country, let us blame the criminals! Funny! We will never move an inch forward! The mindset defines what we are.

Meanwhile, a UN-returned Congress leader Shashi Tharoor sounded like a layman when he said, "If they are citizens of India we have an obligation to take them back." Who said 'No'?. He should know that is not the issue now. Who will identify an undocumented person, and how?

The function was held indoors from 12 pm (10:30 pm IST) at the rotunda of the US Capitol building because of unusually intense cold and snow. Delivering his inaugural address, Trump remarked, “The golden age of America begins right now," and just hours later signed a slew of executive orders to redeem the election pledges.