Pakistani cricketer mistaken for terrorist, faces deportation

A cricket player and his family originally from Pakistan face deportation from Belgium after he was seen carrying his bat around Brussels –which was mistaken for a weapon — and was labeled a “terrorist.”

On August 14, Assim Abassi, 22 was seen carrying the bat wrapped in cloth by a member of the security detail of the Israeli ambassador’s residence in the city, according to the Belgian news site Levif.be.

The guard snapped some photos and sent them to police, who then launched a probe to identify the man.

After a three-month investigation turned up nothing, the police then turned to the press which circulated the photos, generating a terror scare.

Local newspapers ran the pictures, warning of a possible armed, anti-Semitic killer on the loose.

According to the Daily Mail, Abassi saw his pictures in the papers and contacted police to let them know that the supposed weapon was a mere cricket bat.

“I wrapped my bat in my sweatshirt because it was raining and if it is wet I can’t play the ball properly,” Abassi was quoted in the Telegraph as saying.

Despite the clarification to police, Abassi and his family have “lost their right” to remain in Belgium, the Daily Mail reported, and the Pakistani embassy fired Abassi’s father, a diplomat, for “damaging Pakistan’s reputation.”

The termination of employment prompted the family members to lose their residency permits.

Brussels police have been criticized for their handling of the affair and a social media campaign was launched urging the Pakistani embassy to reconsider. Some local politicians are also said to have taken up the case, lobbying for the family to remain in the country.

Abassi’s bat raised alarm bells just three months after terror visited the normally placid European capital, in an attack on the Brussels Jewish Museum which left four people dead.

French jihadist Mehdi Nemmouche shot and killed the four, including an Israeli couple on May 24. Nemmouche, 29, of Algerian origin, who spent more than a year fighting with Islamic extremists in Syria, was arrested in France a week later and has been charged with “murder in a terrorist context.”

The attack shocked the country and raised fears of a resurgence of anti-Semitic violence in Europe and of terror attacks from foreign fighters returning from Syria.

Earlier this month, a 31-year-old Belgian rabbi was stabbed in the throat in Antwerp while on his way to his synagogue, near a train station in the city’s Jewish district. He sustained moderate but not life-threatening injuries.

AFP contributed to this report.