Australian PM confirms residency for Pak security guard for Sydney stabbing intervention

Canberra, April 20 (FN Bureau) A Pakistani security guard who was injured while trying to intervene in the Sydney shopping centre stabbing spree has been granted permanent residency in Australia. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed on Friday that Muhammad Taha will be allowed to stay in Australia permanently in recognition of his extraordinary courage during the attack, in which seven people, including perpetrator Joel Cauchi, were killed. Taha and his colleague, fellow Pakistani Faraz Tahir, were working as security guards at the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre on April 13 when Cauchi started attacking shoppers with a knife.

Both men intervened to try to protect the public, and both were stabbed. Tahir died at the scene, and Taha was hospitalised. Albanese said at a press conference on Friday that Taha, who was in Australia on a graduate visa that was set to expire within a month, is a person of clearly good character. Permanent residents of Australia are entitled to live, work, and study in Australia indefinitely, apply for bank loans to buy property, enroll in the nation’s universal health care scheme, Medicare, and apply for citizenship after four years.