Lahore: Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal was released from jail after spending an entire day in lock-up for allegedly thrashing a traffic warden and tearing his uniform after being stopped for violating a traffic signal.
Umar was locked up after the police registered three cases against him.
“He has just been released on personal surety by the station house officer… but will have to appear before the magistrate on Monday to get his bail confirmed until the cases are heard against him,” SSP Zahid Aziz told reporters on Sunday.
Umar, who was whisked away in a waiting car to his residence, spent the entire Saturday at the police station, prompting a large number of his supporters to gather outside and raise slogans against his arrest.
Umar’s elder brother, Kamran, who was allowed to take his sibling home earlier, told reporters that he was very upset with the way a national team player had been treated.
“We are not terrorists and we know and respect the law of the land but this is not the way to treat a Pakistan player like an ordinary criminal for a incident which has been blown out of proportion,” Kamran said.
Earlier on Saturday, efforts by the Akmal family to secure bail for Umar failed as by the time the police produced him in a judicial magistrate court it had closed for the week and the judges had gone home.
“They purposefully delayed taking him to the court so that he couldn’t get bail and now he has to spend time in lock up,” his father, Muhammad told reporters.
Umar, 23, the youngest of the Akmal brothers, who has played 16 Tests, 89 ODIs and 52 T20Is, alleged that the warden had abused and than slapped him.
The Pakistan Cricket Board preferred to remain quiet on this incident. (PTI)