Fresh off the handshake row and the recently resolved dispute with match referee Andy Pycroft, the Pakistan cricket team is currently grabbing headlines ahead of its Super Four fixture against India in the Asia Cup 2025. Today, we will tell you about an unusual 2014 incident when a former Pakistani cricketer was mistaken for a ‘terrorist’ after he was spotted carrying his bat around Brussels.
We are talking about Asim Abassi, a Pakistani cricket player, whose family faced deportation from Belgium after his bat was mistaken for a weapon and he was labeled a ‘terrorist’. The report first came to light in November 2014 in The Times of Israel. Asim Abbasi, who was 22 years old at the time, was spotted by a member of the security detail of the Israeli ambassador’s residence in Brussels, carrying a bat wrapped up in a cloth. The guard at the residence was alarmed by it and clicked some photos, sending them to the police, who then got busy identifying the man’s identity, as per Belgian news site Levif.be.
In the three-month investigation that followed, the police could not find anything about the identity of the man. The photos were then shared with the press, which subsequently generated a terror scare. Local media ran the pictures and warned the public about a possibly armed, anti-Semitic killer on the loose.
As per a Daily Mail report, when Asim Abassi saw his photos circulating in the newspapers, he immediately contacted the police and informed them that the supposed weapon was just a cricket bat. He was quoted by The Telegraph as saying, “I wrapped my bat in my sweatshirt because it was raining and if it is wet I can’t play the ball properly.”
What is shocking is that despite Asim Abbasi’s clarification to the police, he and his family “lost their right” to stay in Belgium. The Daily Mail reported that the Pakistani embassy went as far as to fire Asim Abassi’s father, who was a diplomat, for ‘damaging Pakistan’s reputation.’
Because Asim Abbasi’s father was terminated from his job, the entire family lost their residency permits. This incident was not as widely reported; however, Brussels police did come under scrutiny for how they handled the situation. A social media campaign was also launched, insisting that the Pakistani embassy reconsider its decision. Local politicians, at the time, had also gotten involved in the matter, fighting for the family to remain in the country.
One of the key reasons why Asim Abbasi’s bat raised alarm bells was that it was just three months after an attack on the Brussels Jewish Museum, which left four people dead.