Daily Times

Pakistan middle-order batsman Sohaib Maqsood made headlines for non-cricketing reasons when he saved a family of four during the Regent Plaza fire escape on Monday early morning.

A fire erupted in the four-star hotel located on Karachi’s famous Shahra-e-Faisal which took 11 lives and injured scores.

In a video, circulating on social media, Maqsood tells a person recording the video from a mobile phone that on his way out he saw the family and took it along. “We saw a family of four, who had two five-six year old daughters. On our way to escape the fire, we took them along,” the right-handed batsman says.

“When we smelled the fire we came out of our rooms only to know that using the normal route is impossible. So we decided to break the windows. Every player received the glass wounds.” People trapped inside the hotel broke glass windows and used bed-sheets to save their lives.

10 United Bank Limited’s (UBL) players, including the 29-year-old, were at the hotel at the time of fire outbreak as they were playing a Super Eight Quaid-e-Azam Trophy contest against Habib Bank Limited (HBL) at National Bank Sports Complex, Karachi. Due to the injuries sustained by two UBL players and the trauma of the event on the players, the match was abandoned with both teams being awarded one point.

Maqsood, who hails from Multan, made his during a Twenty20 International against Zimbabwe in 2013. Since he has donned Pakistan colours 46 times in One-Day and T20 cricket.