JALANDHAR: One moment he was enjoying kebabs on Bondi beach. The next, he was running headlong towards a hail of bullets.
The Bondi shooting, horrifying as it was, also saw heroism by ordinary individuals, one of whom was Punjabi-Sikh origin New Zealander Amandeep Singh Bola, who sprinted in the direction of the gunfire, saw one of the shooters stagger back upon being hit by a police bullet, and pounced on him.
Bola, 34, who works as a personal trainer in Australia, kicked Sajid Akram's gun away, held him down, and locked up his arms in case he tried to use any other weapon. "I could feel him dying under me," Bola, whose roots are in Punjab's Nawanshahr, told TOI on the phone on Wednesday.
"I was having a kebab when I heard the gunshots. At first, I thought it was firecrackers, but soon I saw men and women running away in fear. I started running in the direction of the gunfire. On the way, I tried to ask some people what happened, and figured out that two gunmen were shooting at people on the beach," Bola said.
As he neared the footbridge where the shooters had positioned themselves, he slowed down and began advancing stealthily to try to get as close to them as possible before he made the final lunge.
"When I saw one of them dropping down on the footbridge, I was just focused on getting him," Bola told TOI. "I saw police shoot at one of the gunmen. I sprinted towards him, pounced upon him, and held his arms behind his back. A policeman also helped and asked me to keep a tight hold and not let him go. I could feel that he was dying while I was sitting over him. I told police that he seemed to be taking his last breaths. In moments, policemen took control of him," he recalled.
A short mobile phone video shows Bola, clad in a white T-shirt and shorts, sitting on Sajid's back, holding his arms, as a policeman handcuffs the other shooter, Sajid's son Naveed Akram. A man runs up and kicks Sajid in the head.
"As I got up, there was a strong adrenaline rush. I felt like vomiting. People around me comforted me. Bondi has people from multiple cultures, and that brief moment reflected the true spirit of multiculturalism. A French guy gave me coconut water, two Africans remained by my side until I got comfortable, and a few others also stayed around, just to be close," said Bola.
Asked how he went against the natural instinct of running away from danger, Bola said, "In fact, I acted instinctively. My instincts took me there. I was only thinking of helping people in whichever way I could. But once I spotted the shooter, I was focused on getting him." He said he hasn't been able to sleep properly after the tragedy.
Bola said his family hailed from Naura village near Banga in Nawanshahr district (around 100km from Chandigarh). "My great-grandfather, Puna Singh Bola, emigrated to New Zealand in 1916. He was one of the first Sikh immigrants to the island country. My grandparents, Mahan Singh Bola and Parkash Kaur, also lived here. My father, Manjit Singh Bola, who was born and raised in New Zealand, and my mother, Harvinder Kaur, who hails from Ludhiana, live in New Zealand while I moved to Australia six-seven years ago," he said.
Bola said he has visited Punjab quite a few times. "We last went to Darbar Sahib Amritsar in 2019," he said.