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| Woolmer murder: Police hunting for three Pakistanis | | |
KINGSTON/LONDON, MAR 27 In a new twist to Bob Woolmer's murder, Jamaican police was today hunting for three Pakistanis said to be close to the Pakistan team even as the hard drive of the coach's computer was being analysed for any clues of match-fixing.
A fresh angle to the investigations was added with police not ruling out the possibility that Woolmer was poisoned before being strangled on March 18 in his hotel room in Kingston. It is probing if his last room service dinner was laced with drugs to subdue him.
The mystery surrounding the burly coach's murder persisted with the police making statements that are at times contradictory but it was clear that so far there has been no breakthrough for the investigators. Solving the case may take "two days or it may take two years", the police said.
British newspapers reported from Jamaica that police was searching for three Pakistani fans who spent a great deal of time with the players. They are believed to have left Jamaica shortly after the coach was found dead.
The trio were unofficially named Hamid Malik, believed to be from London, Efran Chaudhury, a medical technician from New York, and Jundie Khan who is said to live in Florida. Khan was spotted at a press conference held shortly after the announcement of Woolmer's death.
"We are looking for them to eliminate them (from our inquiries)", Jamaica's Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields was quoted as saying, although later he played down these reports emphasising that the investigators were nowhere near being able to "pinpoint potential suspects or name names".
Initial analyses of Woolmer's computer hard drive has indicated no reference to match-fixing so far, according to the police which said that it was keeping "all lines of inquiries open".
"We have Bob Woolmer's computer. We are looking at what is on the hard drive", Shields said, adding that the investigators were exploring the possibility that the murder was linked to match-fixing.
Jeff Rees, head of the anti-corruption unit of the International Cricket Council (ICC), was investigating any possible links between the murder and match-fixing. He has arrived in Jamaica where the police is assigning a couple of officers to assist him.
Shields was quoted by "New Zealand Herald' as saying that police was conducting toxicology and tissue tests on Woolmer's last meal which was thrown away after he put the tray outside his room on the 12th floor of Pegasus Hotel.
"He was 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) and a big man, and unless he was drugged and impaired it would perhaps have been difficult to restrain him. We are looking at whether his food was drugged", he said.
Shields has not ruled out "a professional hitman" may be involved in the murder. "We are ruling out absolutely nothing at all. It is a possibility", he told reporters.
British newspapers reported that the three Pakistanis stayed close to the team along with another Pakistani, Tariq Malik, who owns a car dealership in Jamaica. Malik had invited the team to his home for 'halal' meals during the World Cup.
Shields said the police will seek DNA samples from everyone in the hotel where Woolmer was murdered -- including members of the West Indies and Ireland teams.
"It is a huge task... There are many potential suspects in this investigation and even more potential witnesses," he said.
The Jamaican authorities have already questioned and obtained DNA and fingerprint samples from Pakistan's World Cup squad, which was allowed to leave the island on Saturday to prevent a "diplomatic crisis".
"That process will continue for everybody else who was in the hotel at the same time," he said.
Police, who are treating the CCTV cameras as "critical&quo t; piece of evidence, said the investigation process was taking a little longer because the CCTV was in a particular format and had to be converted into a digital format before the process of reviewing them could begin.
Shields, a former Scotland Yard officer, said the keycards aspect was also critical to the investigation.
"The keycards aspect is also critical. There were 17 floors with about 20 rooms per floor. There's a lot of comings and goings there. There is also a lot of internal telephone calls as well, all of which may be relevant," he said.
The officer was "optimistic" of bringing Woolmer's killers to justice but said the crime could take years to solve.
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