On the eve of Christmas when J&K Ranji Trophy team players were relaxing in their hotel rooms they might have expected Santa Claus to visit them and shower blessings on them for better performance against their opponents on the final day of the crucial match.
But instead of Santa Claus men in khaki, belonging to the J&K Police, carrying weapons, barged inside their ‘unlocked’ rooms to carry out ‘routine’ searches to track down a top militant commander.
The J&K Ranji team, staying in Hotel Savoy, near Shahidi Chowk, steps away from the residence of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, was woken up past midnight and questioned thoroughly about their antecedents. Their rooms were also thoroughly searched and their identity cards were verified by the police party against their wishes.
Indian off spinner Parvez Rasool is currently heading the J&K Ranji team and was also present in the hotel along with other senior players.
The hotel management on Thursday claimed when the police team arrived in the hotel late on Tuesday night they were informed about the presence of JKCA players in the hotel rooms. “The policemen told us they want to verify the identity of all the occupants and went ahead to search all the rooms,” hotel staff told reporters.
Over one dozen rooms were occupied by the team members in the same hotel.J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is currently enjoying a holiday away from his busy schedule, is yet to respond to the ‘insensitive’ police behaviour.
In his absence, MoS Home, Sajjad Kitchloo has not issued any statement either.A senior functionary of Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association in Jammu told The Pioneer, “It was an unfortunate incident and has affected the self esteem and morale of the players.”
He claimed the office-bearers of the JKCA would be meeting soon to discuss necessary measures to restore confidence of the players.
Ironically, whenever J&K youth and players from the State were ill-treated or harassed by the policemen in different States Omar Abdullah was always the first person to respond and expressed his anger on the micro blogging site.
In October 2009, when two J&K Ranji players were arrested and later released by the Karnataka Police after traces of explosive material were detected in their kit bags Omar had reacted strongly claiming, “We had spoken to different States that they should be sensitive while dealing with such cases because already there are various wounds.”
Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) had also sought an apology from the Karnataka Police for harassing the State players. In this case, JKCA was shying away from seeking an apology from the State police for waking up the retiring players from their deep sleep.
The incident was brought to light by one of the senior team players and all rounder Samiullah Beigh. Shocked over the midnight knock and long drawn process of ‘questioning’ and routine checking Samiullah had shared their nightmarish experience on the social networking site.
“Couldn’t sleep whole night...police came to search our hotel at midnight and questioned us for hours at 1.15 am. We are still feeling the shock and horror of finding uniformed people with guns surrounding us when we were fast asleep,” wrote Samiullah Beigh on his Facebook page.
“Whether deliberate harassment or routine check-up, surely this isn’t the way to treat a bunch of guys with national and international repute, especially when you are playing the most important match of the J&K cricket history. Honestly I am not expecting any wonders today. We may easily lose the game and hence the chances of our qualification to the quarterfinals may vanish.” Their match with team Hyderabad ended in a draw on Wednesday.
Following outrage over ‘insensitive’ police action, Inspector General of Police Jammu zone, Rajesh Kumar on Thursday claimed that none of the players were harassed during the routine checking of hotel rooms.
Addressing mediapersons here in the police control room, the IG said, “The searches were conducted across different hotels and lodges in the old city areas late on Tuesday night following a tip-off from the intelligence agencies over the suspected movement of a top militant commander in the area.”