A day later, Tauseef Ahmad, the cricketer’s father, told The Times Of India that his family was in “danger” and that the emotive issue of “gau hatya” (cow slaughter) was being used to target them.

“My son was not even present there at the time of the incident and had reached the site only much later,” Ahmad told TOI on Friday. “He (Haseeb) was just an onlooker like so many others who had gathered there. He was unnecessarily dragged into the controversy. It is just that a few persons are nurturing enmity with our family because of the publicity we have got after Shami started playing for team India. I had reported the issue to the DM in this regard a month ago. This (the arrest) is the result of that. A term like ‘cow slaughter’ is being used to target us.”

Several reports said that Haseeb got into a fight with the police as he wanted the accused in the incident to be released. In the process of doing so, he got into a fracas and also tore the uniform of one of the officials.

Meanwhile the accused, along with other cow smugglers, managed to run way. The police, however, arrested Haseeb.