LAHORE: All eight hockey individuals, including four Olympians, who had been arrested by police allegedly in a gambling case in August, were exonerated as the police failed to establish a case against them.

This was announced by Olympians Anjum Saeed and Danish Kaleem, who were among those arrested, during a press conference here on Wednesday.

Anjum and Danish said they were considering taking action against the police after seeking advice from their lawyers.

“We believe the case against us not only defamed our integrity, but also damaged the image of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) — the custodian of Pakistan’s national game,” they said. “You can’t imagine the volume of agony we and our families had to experience during the last two months.

“The entire occurrence tarnished our reputation in the world of hockey as we received a number of phone calls and text messages from our well-wishers from abroad who shared their concern with us when the case was registered,” Anjum and Danish added.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2014