 | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | | SUSPICION: Woolmer with the Pakistan team a day before he was murdered | | | The police deny that Woolmer threw an Indian bookie out of his room just before he was found dead. | | Jamaica has been Pakistani national Tarik Malik's home for the past 25 years. Malik operates a thriving car dealership in Kingston and is the only businessman among 20 Pakistani nationals who reside in Jamaica. His life on the paradise isle was good until Bob Woolmer died. With the strangulation of his country's cricket coach, in Jamaica's Pegasus Hotel, 12 days ago, he suddenly found himself among four Pakistani nationals, who were branded as fanatics by sections of the British media and who were sought for questioning in the murder case which has rocked World Cup 2007. The man leading the investigation into the murder, Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields, told journalists that the police were leaving no stone unturned and wanted to contact the four Pakistanis. The other three were reported to have left the island for the UK and the US after Pakistan's dismal performance in the World Cup. | | Four Pakistanis are being sought for questioning but three may have already left the island. | | Pakistani fans could easily go up to the hotel's fifth floor where the team was staying. | | But days after those reports surfaced, the police have not made any attempt to contact Malik. This has left him feeling frustrated and upset with the adverse publicity he has been getting. "It is not right for them to paint me as a suspect when they have not even tried to see me once. I am not in hiding, they know where to find me," says Malik. Sitting in his office at Old Hope Road, just a stone's throw away from the ill-fated hotel where Woolmer was found dead, Malik says he always used to entertain members of Pakistani delegations whenever they came to Jamaica, and the cricketers were no exception. He and his countrymen reportedly supplied food and condiments to the players during their stay in Kingston. "I know the team management well and they all used to come to my house. I know the food they like and how to prepare it. After all I am from Pakistan," Malik says. | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | | TOUGH CALL: ICC Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Speed (right) with Shield | | | The delay has fuelled speculation that the footage recorded was of little help as it was not clear enough. | | Till Wednesday, there was no news whether or not the police had finished reviewing the footage of the cctv that had recorded the events on the 12th floor corridor of the hotel between 8.45 p.m. on March 17 and 10.45 a.m. the following morning. Since then 12 days have passed, and the local police have not yet been able to name a suspect or report any progress in their investigation into the incident which has overshadowed the largest sporting event ever to be held in the Caribbean. The wait for answers from the cops has prompted speculation that the footage recorded by equipment, which a source close to the investigation described as 'archaic', was hardly of any help as it had little clarity. But Shields has denied the allegations describing them as a 'load of crap'. Hotel security was one area where the organisers of the World Cup had said great emphasis would be placed, but with Woolmer's murder, that aspect of the security arrangements has come under the glare of the international media. Earlier this week, Pakistani senator Zafar Iqbal Chaudhary, chairman of Pakistan's Senate Standing Committee on Sports, was supposed to have said that security personnel in Jamaica should be blamed for Woolmer's murder. "I would say that lax security at the team's hotel was also to blame for this heart-rending incident," Chaudhary was quoted as saying. Malik was in agreement with his countryman. "The security was poor. Almost anyone and everyone could get access to guest floors. It seems the hotel security personnel were out of their depth. Four teams, lots of visitors and media. They didn't know who to hassle," Malik says, adding that on the evening following Pakistan's loss to West Indies, Pakistani fans were seen going up to the fifth floor where their team was staying. "I saw it myself," he says. The police have also denied allegations that Woolmer threw an Indian bookmaker out of his hotel room hours before he was found dead. "We are not ruling anything out, but we have no reports or evidence of any Indian connection so far," Shields said. The police have taken DNA samples from most of those who were present in the hotel at the time of Woolmer's murder and are awaiting the results of tests done on tissue and fluid samples taken from his body. His body cannot be released to his loved ones until a coroner's inquest is completed. Reports from the pathologist and the police, and statements taken from those questioned by the police have not yet been forwarded to the coroner of Kingston, Patrick Murphy. Karyl Walker is the chief crime reporter for The Jamaica Observer in Kingston. Index |
