The two Muhammads, Taha and Fahad, were always there for each other.
Warning: This article contains graphic depictions of violence and may disturb some readers.
In Rawalpindi, in northern Pakistan, where they grew up and went to school together. At university, where they studied electrical engineering. On the plane to Australia, after they decided to come here to work.
They shared a house in western Sydney. They found work at the same renewable energy company. To earn extra cash, they trained as security guards together.
And on April 13, they patrolled the same floor at Westfield Bondi Junction.
And then, these lifelong friends split.
Muhammad Taha was directed to relieve a guard on Level 4. Muhammad Fahad stayed on Level 2.
On the higher floor, Mr Taha was paired with another guard from Pakistan: Faraz Tahir, who was on his first day-shift at the mall.
At 3.30pm, the pair heard a commotion outside Country Road on Level 4, near the glass-walled walkway that runs over Oxford Street, joining the two sides of the mall.
Mr Taha calls it “the tunnel”.
“All of a sudden we heard people shouting and screaming,” Mr Taha says.
“We both quickly talk with each other, to go and look what’s going on.”
‘Somehow he managed to stab me’
Whatever was happening was unusual enough to grab the attention of another shopper, Ramon Velez. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and filmed as he walked towards the sound.
His video shows people stopped in their tracks. Two women run past, away from the noise. Mr Velez kept walking towards the scene, filming as he went.
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“What happened?” Mr Velez asks.
Some people are bending over something – or someone — on the ground. A person wearing a blue shirt is kneeling. There’s a scream.
Then the two security guards, Mr Taha and Faraz Tahir, enter the frame, overtaking Mr Velez.
Tahir is on the right: Slim, wearing black pants, a white shirt, and a black vest. He’s walking briskly. Mr Taha is to his left, in a black suit. He’s limping slightly. A woman urges them on.
“He was two to three steps ahead of me,” Mr Taha says. “People were rushing toward the side.”
Mr Velez’s video records a woman saying “get an ambulance here now”. Mr Tahir walks to the right side of a cafe in the middle of the walkway. Mr Taha slows to call for help on his radio. But he still has no idea what’s going on.
Mr Velez’s video does not capture what happens next. But you hear it.
“Still there were people running towards us. While we were in the middle of the tunnel, some guy from the crowd jumps Faraz and he stabbed him. But I didn’t know that because he was in front of me,” Mr Taha says.
The video captures two guttural noises. Mr Velez says this is the moment Faraz Tahir is stabbed.
Then Mr Tahir turns to face Mr Taha.
“I just saw all the blood coming out of his chest,” Mr Taha says.
“And I was processing it and at the same time I saw the attacker with a big knife. And he jumped over me at the same time after hitting Faraz, and I tried to confront him … but somehow he managed to stab me in the left side.”
Their attacker disappears. It’s all so confusing that Mr Taha doesn’t realise he’s injured.
Mr Tahir falls on the ground, and Mr Taha drags his wounded colleague towards some seats on the side of the walkway. He reaches again for his radio.
“I contacted the control room and told them that we both are stabbed, and there’s some attacker on the run with a big knife,” he says.
‘I’m coming’
Two levels below, Muhammad Fahad hears his friend’s radio call.
He calls Mr Taha’s mobile phone. Incredibly, Mr Taha picks up.
“He told me, ‘The guy stabbed me and he is also stabbing other people,’ and he told me the location: Level 4.”
“I’m coming,” Mr Fahad says.
Mr Fahad runs to the escalators. The mall’s evacuation alarm is now sounding, with a recorded announcement repeating: “Emergency. Evacuate Now”.
Shoppers are pouring out onto the street, trying to get away.
Police Inspector Amy Scott was in the mall, followed by a posse of civilians, trying to find the attacker.
The killer, diagnosed schizophrenic Joel Cauchi, has now moved one level higher, and is on the Level 5 walkway, almost directly above the wounded guards, when Amy Scott confronts him.
She tells him to drop the knife. Michael Dunkley, who is running behind Inspector Scott, sees what happens next.
“He lunges straight away, didn’t say a word, went straight at her,” he told 7.30
The shots reverberate around the mall. Mr Fahad hears them from Level 2. He cannot know that the shots are from a police officer, and Cauchi is dead.
“I heard the gunshots, so that makes me more worried … I thought that if somebody with the gun is there then it can cause a lot of trouble,” he says.
He comes around a corner on Level 4 and finds Mr Taha.
“It was horrible. I saw people lying injured on the floor, and also blood everywhere,” Mr Fahad says.
“My two colleagues, Taha and Faraz, they were stabbed as well. Both of them, they lost a lot of their blood at that time.”
Mr Tahir is on his back, Mr Taha is sitting next to him.
Another shopper pulls a shirt out of his bag and gives it to Mr Fahad.
“I placed a shirt on his wound to control the bleeding,” Mr Fahad tells 7.30.
Meanwhile Mr Tahir, who would later die, is fading.
“He was pale yellow, as he had lost a lot of his blood,” Mr Fahad says.
“His eyes were open at that time, and after a few minutes he closed his eyes and became unconscious.
“I thought I should look after Taha first, as he was also bleeding. I thought if he lost more blood he could get critical, so I kept helping him.”
‘It’s God’s will that he’s with me’
Soon, the first paramedics arrive. There are four critically injured people here: Two women on the ground, and the two guards, Mr Tahir and Mr Taha.
“I told them (Faraz) is in a critical condition. So he needs more attention. So they came and attended Faraz,” he says.
At this critical moment in Mr Taha’s life, his friend is not only by his side once again – Mr Taha believes Mr Fahad’s treatment saved his life.
“If he wasn’t there, and he didn’t come on time, maybe I wouldn’t be here … it’s like God’s will that he’s with me, and I’m with him,” he says.
More paramedics arrive and begin treating Mr Taha. They stabilise him, get him to an ambulance and eventually to RPA Hospital. Mr Taha loses consciousness.
He has no memory of the next four days. Eventually, he’s told that Faraz Tahir died.
“Before that I thought that he’s in the hospital and still recovering,” he says.
On April 26, he’s allowed to leave hospital for a few hours to attend Mr Tahir’s funeral.
“I wanted to pay my regards to him and see his family as well,” he says.
Fahad wants to stay in Australia
Mr Taha left hospital last Friday. He’s in a great deal of pain, moves extremely slowly and can’t yet manage stairs. Westfield is paying for his accommodation in a Parramatta apartment with lift access, where Mr Fahad is helping care for him.
For both men, the trauma of April 13 is acute.
“The emotional wounds I don’t think can be healed so quickly,” Mr Taha says.
“It will take years because this type of incident and trauma I have in my mind, it will be with me the rest of my life. It’s not easy to forget.”
Mr Taha has difficulty moving around the apartment. Mr Fahad feels deeply uncomfortable whenever he leaves it.
“There is always a little bit of fear … especially in shopping malls and these sorts of things. Like maybe anybody can come from anywhere and cause trouble for me and for people. So that’s what comes into my mind,” he says.
In recognition of his bravery, Mr Taha has been granted permanent residency in Australia.
“He certainly is the sort of character that we want to see continuing to contribute here in Australia,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Mr Fahad’s working visa expires at the end of this month. He wants to stay, too.
“I want to stay to look after him, and to continue my job, my career,” he says.
Mr Taha says his friend is a hero and should be allowed to stay in Australia.
“I tried my best,” Mr Fahad says.
“I did whatever I could do that time. Unfortunately, we lost our colleague Faraz and five other people. But we managed to save Muhammad Taha that day.”
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