The hotel where the Jammu and Kashmir Ranji team was staying
The Jammu and Kashmir cricket team participating in the domestic Ranji Trophy championship was woken up at their hotel in Jammu on Tuesday night and questioned for hours by the police who were reportedly looking for a suspected militant.
The players, staying at Jammu's Hotel Savoy, hadn't locked their doors as only their team was staying there at the time. According to one of the players, they were startled awake by armed policemen surrounding them.
The police told the cricketers that it was a "routine check" after a tip-off that a militant had been spotted in the neighbourhood.
One of the cricketers described in an online post his sleepless night ahead of a crucial match against Hyderabad on Wednesday and his worry that they would lose.
"Couldn't sleep whole night...police came to search our hotel at midnight and questioned us for hours at 1:15 am. We are still feeling the shock and horror of finding uniformed people with guns surrounding us when we were fast asleep," wrote Samiullah Beigh on his Facebook page.
"Whether deliberate harassment or routine check-up, surely this isn't the way to treat a bunch of guys with national and international repute, especially when you are playing the most important match of the JK cricket history. Honestly I am not expecting any wonders today. We may easily lose the game and hence the chances of our qualification to the quarterfinals may vanish." Their match with team Hyderabad ended in a draw.
A senior Jammu police officer told NDTV that the police had no idea that the Ranji cricket team was staying at the hotel. "This was a random check of all hotels in the area. We never intended to harass the players," said Rajesh Kumar, the Inspector General of Police, Jammu.