Junaid Safdar, Zakaria released without charge after brawl

LONDON: Police released without charge Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Maryam Nawaz’s son Junaid Safdar and Zakari Sharif, son of Hussain Nawaz, after arresting them Thursday night over a physical fight outside the Avenfield apartments.

Police responded to the scene of the fight as Junaid Safdar and Zakarai Sharif got involved in the fight with around seven Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf protesters who were present at the doorstep of Avenfield flats and hurled abuses at Junaid Safdar as he made his way inside the flats.

Junaid Safdar told the police in his statement that he “acted in self-defence” and reacted only when he was attacked.

“I was attacked with a weapon. The attacker threw a hard object on me after spitting at me. One attacker had a hard object in his hands while his companions carried sticks and umbrellas. I had no choice but to defend myself in such circumstance,” Junaid told the police during an interview at the police station where he was kept for three hours.

Sources told this scribe that Zakaria Sharif told the police that one of the attackers threw a hard object at him and “hit my younger brother Zayd with an umbrella. Everything we did was in self-defence”.

When contacted, the police said that they were called at “approximately 18:45hrs on Thursday, 12 July to reports of a fight on Park Lane, SW1”.

The police said that the officers immediately attended the scene and “one person was taken to a central London hospital for treatment of minor injuries”.

The police added that “two people” were “arrested on suspicion of assault” and taken to a central London police station. It’s understood that the police decided not to charge Junaid Safdar and Zakaria Sharif after their statements were recorded and their “self-defence” arguments taken into account. The police will, however, continue inquiries and will review the footage overall.

Footage showed the brawl involving several men taking part in the fight and the fight going on for at least two minutes. The police reached the scene and arrested Junaid and Zakari while took one of the PTI protesters to the hospital for treatment.

Maryam Nawaz said in a tweet that the "PTI workers stationed outside London flat shouted [expletive] every time they saw Junaid [her son]".

"Anyone would have reacted," she added.

A video showed one protester trying to attack the two young Sharifs, with Junaid Safdar bowing out and saving himself in time. Another video showed Zakaria Sharif on top of the attacker while the police reaching there to separate them.