Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal gets bail after being jailed for assaulting traffic warden

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 signal here.

Umar was locked up at the Gulberg police station in whose jurisdiction the incident occurred in the afternoon as the police registered three cases against him.

"He has just been released on personal surety by the station house officer of the Gulberg PS 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.

Umar, who was whisked away in a waiting car to his residence, spent the entire day at the police station prompting a large number of his supporters to gather outside and raise slogans against his arrest.

"I have burnt my entire cricket kit today in front of the station because if this is the way our national cricket heroes are treated for a minor traffic offence I don't want to play cricket again," irate fan and club player Reza Bhatti said.

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 in the day, 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. We are trying to find a solution but this is a unfortunate incident," his father, Muhammad Akmal told reporters.