Rule of law: Olympians among 8 arrested for gambling

Ghalib Market police say they made the arrests from <br /> a local hotel.

LAHORE: Ghalib Market police claimed on Sunday to have arrested eight former national hockey officials, including four Olympians, found betting on card games at a local hotel.

Police said they had received a tip-off about gambling going on at a local hotel. They raided the place and took eight men into custody. They said they had arrested Danish Kaleem, Anjum Saeed, Irfan Zia, Sohail Ashraf, Kamran Ashraf, Muhammad Irfan, Omar Ibrahim and Zaheer Ahmad.

Police said they had seized cash and playing cards.

They said a case had been registered against all eight and that they were locked up.

Following the arrests, a number of former hockey players had visited the station. They included: Rehan Butt, Akhtar Rasool, Shahbaz Senior and Khawaja Junaid, who met the arrested men at the police station. Police said some of them had also tried to persuade police to let the players go.

However, they said police refused to accept any request for leniency. Police said Model Town SP Zahid Nawaz Marwat had earlier constituted a special team, consisting of Gulberg DSP Nasir Mehmood Bajwa and Ghalib Market SHO Nasir Hameed, and tasked them with raiding gambling dens. Operations DIG Dr Haider Ashraf has commended the police team.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th,2014.