Speaking to journalists from his residence in Ayubia, Iftikhar said that providing security to the touring Pakistani team was the responsibility of the Indian government. “They (the government and hotel management) were supposed to look after the food the team is given as they are visually impaired and cannot see what they are eating,” he said, outraged at the incident which almost cost his son’s life.
Skipper Zeeshan was rushed to a hospital in Banglore on Saturday after he drank a mild form of acid from a bottle which was supposed to contain water. But he was swiftly treated and released from the hospital the same day.
Iftikhar criticised the government and the cricket board for not informing him about the incident officially. “I heard about it on the news and immediately called Zeeshan.”
His father added that the incident was not a conspiracy against his son but against the nation’s hero.Iftikhar demanded that an inquiry be held into the incident and those responsible be punished. He also stressed on the need for strict security arrangements for the blind team in future.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2012.
COMMENTS (47)
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@Yuri Kondratyuk: For Pakis, everything is a conspiracy.
@QuaideAzamTheGreat: Laughable.
@Hasan Mehmood: My apologies. While there is no excuse for the Bangalore incident, my point was there is a difference between visiting Pakistan and visiting India. And the comment by the original poster was not meant for the Pakistan team captain, but the kiddos here who were shouting conspiracy.
@Jat:
{How did Daniel Pearl feel when he was slowly being beheaded ?}
I fail to understand the connection in my comment and your reply. I only wondered that how come you can tell someone to get lost and never come back just because he publicly complained of the wrong done to him. Mind you I never said anything about conspiracy or passed any derogatory remarks about the investigation process in the matter. BECAUSE MY MIND IS NOT FILLED WITH HATE UNLIKE MOST INDIAN TROLLS ON THIS SITE. For once think like a gentleman instead of point scoring all the time.
N.B: By the way I am one of the harshest Pakistani critic of all extremists on this site but that's besides the point.
@Hasan Mehmood: How did Daniel Pearl feel when he was slowly being beheaded ? Was he not traveling on a valid visa and passport ? What did the police and agencies tell his wife and family after his brutal killing ? Oh and the Sri Lankans ? All RAW agents ?
Amazing, not a single sane commentator from India? Nobody accepted that this was awful infliction on a blind person (irrespective of religion or country).
@Nitish: {Inquiry will be done but make sure that you r not in india from next time….got it}
Thats a very insensible and rude remark and shows sheer hatred shining through. If you by any chance visit Pakistan and get robbed, how would you like to be told that while we will investigate and catch the culprit, you are not welcome next time.
Apparently it's quite common in India to mistake soap water for drinking water, Soap Water for phenyl and phenyl for acid. Absolutely no need for an investigation.
@random who writes "The fact that so many indians would find that time to post repeated comments in a pakistani paperr paper never ceases to amaze me …"
It's the recession!!
The fact that so many indians would find that time to post repeated comments in a pakistani paperr paper never ceases to amaze me ...
@Queen i second with you but unfortunately the problem is with our government which wouldn't have taken any stance even if he would have died. they are busy in corruption and don't have time to think about anything else.
well in India only, the foreign guest stays in third class hotel where the cleaning substance ends up on the breakfast table of the guests.
@Yoghurt lover: Who says "I don’t run a restaurant", yes no wonder!.
If this would have happened to an Indian cricketer in Pakistan, then these Indian would have sucked out our blood. Such sour losers, man these Indians should have at least shown some humanity before trying to make a blind guy a victim of their jealousy. I think the Pakistani cricket team should cancel their visit to India. That will be a good lesson.
It is a fact that India doesn't have good R&D base like western countries , but we know things like cyanide or sulpuric acid are better than phenyl . So, if we get a chance , we won't think to do that.
I was in India during the Samjhauta Express attacks which were initially blamed on Pakistan based militants only to be proven a lie later as Sadhvi Pragya's case proves. An Indian analyst called for war with Pakistan and called it the source of every ill.
If this had happened in Pakistan to an Indian they would have not left it so easily. We are a dead society... with no honor. We couldn't protect Malala from TTP terrorists. There will be many more like him.
We cannot protect Pakistanis outside... we can't protect them outside. No wonder everyone just tends to escape.
He should sue the hotel management and his own team management for negligence but should not call it a conspiracy to kill him and blame those who are so nice to him.
@Syed: Pakistan was very responsible when srilanka visited you,I will rather drink phenyl then to loose my life to terrorists
@QuaideAzamTheGreat: In your country it is not soap water or phenyl, You have deadly gun totting terrorists to chase the cricket teams,When was last, cricket match was played in pakistan?? Then it was blamed on indian conspiracy to take away cricket from pakistan.
@Yuri Kondratyuk: Take it easy mate. What's wrong in asking someone to stay safe? Whats so judgmental about it?
@Sajid Iqbal who asks me "You seems a Phenyl addict. Don’t you?"
Hehehe! That was funny :)
@Ghaznavi: OK Sir, if all the Indian explanations are not acceptable, do enlighten let us all with your own explanation of the incident. Also do mind that PCB chairman, Zaka Ashraf himself agrees that it was only an unintentional mishap.
Oh Ya Ya actually it's true Indian RAW wanted to kill a blind Pakistani man..
get a life Pakis..!!
@Yoghurt lover: You seems a Phenyl addict. Don't you?
Typical response by Indians: - Complete denial - Point fingers at the victim and visiting guests - Victim is at fault or his manager or the hotel or mickey mouse or hafiz saeed or Let or Jud or Taliban or ISI or ABCD ....
Fact is ALL Indians HATE Pakistanis just like Bal Thakrey, their hero. They will not miss a chance to kill, poison, massacre Pakistanis (or Indian Muslims for that matter).
Indians are angels on earth and never do anything wrong!! (sic)
this is not a incident. Its a plain to hurt pak captain. i have a question for Indian if such thing happened in pak what will your reaction? your government reaction? if you people have common sense than you have got what i want to pretending. our cricket board reacting like a bheegi billi . they should have to take strong reaction against this misshape. we don't want cricket at a cost our players life.
@SK5 who asks "OK so do you regurarly serve your customers with diluted phenyl, is it on the menu?"
I don't run a restaurant.
@UHS:
Shall we consider Idris Baig the Pakistani umpire who was caught taking instructions from the Pakistani captain on the day before an India-Pak match or Jawed Akhtar who was the only international umpire to be accused of match fixing?
Sir, please don't judge rest of the world by you own lofty standards:)
@Yoghurt lover: "If someone wanted to kill your NATIONAL HERO, he would have placed a bottle of Sulfuric Acid or rat poison and not diluted phenyl."
OK so do you regurarly serve your customers with diluted phenyl, is it on the menu?
@JB
I agree there's no point in blaming the Pak cricket management. They are not responsible for this.
Hotel staff and management are.
In my opinion, the hotel should be shut down.
There are too many expensive worthless star hotels in India anyways.
@ All Indians You can deny the situation all you want. Whereas, I would not go so far as saying this was a murder attempt but just the fact that you people would play this down as negligence on the part of the Pakistani management is just absurd. Do you have your parents tagging along with you everywhere you go in a hotel? Do they follow you to the restaurant within the hotel? And if the hotel staff was cleaning the area, why didn't it stop the player from going there? Why wasn't he warned? And what was the bottle of phenyl doing on an eating table in the first place?
England has won back to back test matches. English players should be careful now. :)
Pheynl is white in color, just like dettol mixed with water. Why was no one looking after the guests. both the hotel management and pak cricket management are guilty. More guilty is the hotel management, there should be no cleaning agent in sight at the place of dinner.
For those who are crying foul, no body cares about you. so keep whining.
@GhostRider: Yes definitly becoz the media of both countries report the news in such a way "Shocking :Indian cricketer murder attempt in Pakistan" ..then what reaction do u expect from ur rival nation ??..ther is a thin line of relationship that 2 countries share..1 bad news n ther will b war declaration while nobody even knows what is the ground reality ..similiarly here Pakistaniss r commenting as if they were presnt in Bangalore to c what happened
@ All Pakistanis,
Why this Happened?? why was the Pakistani BLIND cricketer on the TERRACE of the Hotel where the hotel Staff were cleaning that area??
This is the latest News Guys the GUY drank the Soap solution from terrace of the Building .
I know Pakistani dramas are of good quality . Didnt know that they would get into a drama mode on every trivial issue. Guys grow up!
If the same thing happen with Indian player in Pakistan then war should be declared as Indians are so extremist. What would be your reaction after your players treated like this?
@GhostRider:
Given Pakistan's record of touring sports teams being attacked, we would believe it as a typical Pakistani thing to happen. On the other hand the hotel management fully explained the incident to the team and apologized. Once again, it was detergent water and not some radioactive/acidic/anti-matter in the bottle.
Grow up kids.. It was just an accident. It will never happen again..
Fact is that it was just soap water. And his life was never in danger. But, that doesn't stop Pakistanis from being drama queens. does it?!
@Mohinder sandhu: Had this happened in Pakistan to an indian what would have been your reaction...your media would ve run havoc as if a tsunami has hit mumbai.
I know Pakistanis lack common sense, so let me explain :
If someone wanted to kill your NATIONAL HERO, he would have placed a bottle of Sulfuric Acid or rat poison and not diluted phenyl.
At no point of time was this man's life in danger. He was never critical and not even serious. Drinking diluted phenyl will cause dierrhea, vomiting and stomach upset. Just as much damage if you eat uncooked mutton.
And he drank very little and not much. One simply cannot drink a lot of filthy substance, our body naturally rejects it.
If it were acid the way it was reported, even a spoonful of it would have burned down his food pipe, possibly damaging wind pipe, burning all his internal organs severely and irreparably. He was let out the same day from the hospital. That should tell you how serious he was.
It was an unfortunate error. It was horrible. It shouldn't have happened. In my opinion the hotel should be shut down without any mercy.
But "a conspiracy to harm a blind athlete"? such things can happen only in Pakistan.
Mohinder, if you can not become a responsible host to look after your guests than please do not go further down the hill. Atleast you can condemn this idiotic act.
Mohindar Sandh
Why doesn't it happen to guests from other countries? Just tell us how many Indian blind cricketers have been made to drink dangerous substances in that hotel. Nil. It is a clear case of attempted murder to hurt Pakistan. It is not even a conspiracy.
AS if poison has been served to him these people are making noise. Its "Phenyl", used to clean the floor of hotel. It is sold in pet bottle for consumers in India. Ofcourse hotel people should have been careful but the Pakistan team manager should have been more so. He let the members to his own means and now complaining against India. Where is Pakistan team manager or caretaker when the incident happen? does the water got served or the player himself drank it without advice?
"His father added that the incident was not a conspiracy against his son but against the nation’s hero.Iftikhar demanded that an inquiry be held into the incident and those responsible be punished"
Inquiry will be done but make sure that you r not in india from next time....got it.
Every thing is a conspiracy ? Aren't you guys sick of this ? accidents happens., the manager of the hotel should be taken to task not the prime minister or head of RAW.Get life people.