Radical teen Numan Haider researched PM’s plans
SLAIN extremist teen Numan Haider searched the travel movements of former Prime Minister Tony Abbott before attacking two police officers.
ASIO had fears a radicalised Melbourne teen was considering targeting the then prime minister, Tony Abbott, an AFL game and a military base before he was shot in 2014 while attacking two police.
In the weeks before he was killed, Numan Haider had conducted internet searches of the terms “firecrackers wrapped with metal sheet”, “Tony Abbott next visit to Victoria”, “Holsworthy military base” and “AFL football”, which a senior ASIO officer says was an unusual search for him.
Haider had also told an associate he would “do it soon”, an inquest into the young man’s death heard on Wednesday in Melbourne. The ASIO officer, giving evidence under the pseudonym Natalie Mayfair, said she had shared this information with federal police in a meeting on September 17, 2014.
Haider, 18, was shot in the head outside the Endeavour Hills police station after he stabbed a Victoria Police officer and an Australian Federal Police officer attached to the Joint Counter Terror Team on September 23, 2014.
ASIO met with police three times in the week before Haider’s death.
Ms Mayfair told the inquest she wanted to know what police could do about the teen.
“I recall stating Numan’s recent activities and suggested he was on a trajectory towards more extreme behaviour.” ASIO had no information of a specific threat to the prime minister, but they were concerned Haider may commit a politically motivated attack, Ms Mayfair told the inquest.
She said she would not allow ASIO officers to interview Haider again because she believed he had been successful in obtaining at least one knife, and had sought to obtain several weapons, including a Taser.
“I had safety concerns for my officers,” Ms Mayfair told the inquest.
“Police are better trained to handle approaching people carrying weapons.” The inquest into continues before coroner John Olle.
Numan Haider, 18, was shot in the head outside the Endeavour Hills police station after he stabbed a Victoria Police officer and an Australian Federal Police officer attached to the Joint Counter Terror Team on September 23, 2014.
A senior ASIO officer on Wednesday told a coronial inquest into the death she had informed federal police that Haider’s activities suggested he was on a trajectory to more extreme behaviour and he had also, unusually, searched AFL football, before he attacked the police.