BANGALORE COPS HARASS KASHMIR CRICKETERS.

A "FAULTY" bomb detection device almost turned two budding cricketers and their coach from Jammu & Kashmir into terrorists. Members of the under-22 cricket team, they were detained after a hand-held device indicated the presence of explosives in the kit bag of one of the players at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore.

Pervez Rasool and Mehrajuddin, along with coach Abdul Qayoom, an Air India employee and former captain of the state Ranji team, were taken to the Cubbon Park police station and reportedly questioned for five hours after Pervez's bag was suspected to have traces of explosives.

However, police sources said the hand-held metal detector that triggered the alarm may have been faulty. An official who declined to be quoted said: "We now suspect that the fault was in the instrument, as we did not find any explosive mate- By Sowmya Aji in New Delhi rial in the bag at all."

Pervez, who is the highest scorer for the North Zone in the C.K. Nayadu tournament, told MAIL TODAY that the bag was new and had been opened just before he set out for his team's scheduled Cuttack-Bangalore- Mumbai-Jaipur tour.

"The bag was given to all of us by the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association. I opened the polythene cover on the bag just before we left for Cuttack. I put my clothes and cricket equipment and flew to Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, played the match, and from there flew to Bangalore.

I don't know how there can be any trace of explosives in the bag only the police can answer that,'' Pervez said.

" For the first time in my life such a thing has happened. All my family members are upset.

But I have decided to concentrate on the game and win rather than let all these things upset me. They questioned us for five hours and were not rough, but I had to deal with so much suspicion,'' he added.

Coach Qayoom said all three of them were questioned about their entire lives in graphic detail.

" We were asked about our family members, relatives and whether we had any involvement or contact with militants or terror groups. We were let off only after Kashmir local police confirmed to the Bangalore Police that we did not have any suspicious antecedents,'' Qayoom said.

He said both Pervez and Mehrajuddin were rattled by the experience. " I myself, as a senior cricketer, felt very bad to be treated like this. Naturally both are upset. I have sent off the entire team to relax and get the experience out of their heads,'' he added.

A security guard at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium ahead of the two Champions League matches on Saturday, set off the furore after his hand- held bomb detection device beeped. He reportedly informed the Bangalore Police about the presence of explosives in an area of 100 to 150 metres from the spot where he stood.

This triggered a search of the stadium's club house, where the under- 22 team from J& K had arrived on Friday evening from Cuttack for a match on October 22.

During the search, sources said Pervez had come under suspicion because he did not allow the sniffer dogs near his bag because it had a copy of the Quran. Qayoom confirmed this. But the police got " suspicious" and took him away for questioning along with his roommate Mehrajuddin.

The Bangalore Police have sent the " suspicious'' bag to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory for testing. Police commissioner Shankar Bidri himself admitted that there were no traces of any explosives in the bag and the sniffer dogs also did not find any indications that the bag had been used for transporting explosives.

However, Bidri had earlier said, " We suspect that the bag had been used for transportation of explosives after two separate equipment indicated it. Or the explosives might have been brought in that bag and shifted to another place during the night.

These are possibilities. We suspect that because some residue is left in the bag. So in this connection we have registered a case and are investigating." Both the boys and the coach were let off late in the evening and the entire team has been moved to a hotel in the city. But the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association ( JKCA) has taken serious note of the event.

J& KCA secretary Saleem Khan told M AIL T ODAY over phone from Srinagar: " We are going to lodge a very strong complaint with the BCCI against this treatment of our boys. We demand an apology from the Karnataka Police and will also write to the Karnataka government.'' The association will also take a call on whether the team will play the October 22 match against Karnataka. But Qayoom and Pervez both said they wanted to play and put the incident behind them.

Union minister Farooq Abdullah, who is also the JKCA chief, injected a new angle into the controversy saying it was the handiwork of some disgruntled elements or cricketers sidelined in selection.

He said these disgruntled elements made phone calls to the Bangalore police about the presence of explosives in the bags.

sowmya.aji@mailtoday. in

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