Tainted cricket trio return home in Pakistan

Lahore : The three Pakistani cricketers embroiled in a spot-fixing scandal returned home on Saturday amid pro and anti-slogans by cricket fans, Geo TV reported.

Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Aamer arrived here in the morning, the report said.

They were permitted to go back home for Eid celebrations, it said.

Earlier, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt said on Thursday that there are no criminal charges against three tainted cricketers — Test captain Salman Butt and pacers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif — and they will come back to the country but fast bowler Wahab Riaz will be questioned by the police in London next week in connection with the spot-fixing scandal.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has provisionally suspended Salman, Asif and Aamer. The Scotland Yard has also launched its own investigation.

Asif is also looking for political asylum in Britain as he fears for his life in Pakistan, earlier reports said.

He met an immigration lawyer in London and discusses the possible ways to seek asylum as a refugee, according to reports.

A sting operation carried out by British tabloid The News of the World led to the trail of the three cricketers’s alleged involvement in match-fixing and spot-fixing.