Pakistan sending top diplomat to Jamaica

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Friday it was rushing a senior diplomat from Washington to Jamaica after Caribbean police said national team cricket coach Bob Woolmer was strangled.

"We do not have any diplomatic presence in Jamaica and we have decided to send a senior official from our Washington mission to interact with Caribbean authorities," foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

"The official will handle the affair with the police," Aslam said.

She said Pakistan's Washington embassy was 'accredited to handle affairs in Jamaica' involving the South Asian nation.

Jamaican police said on Friday Woolmer was likely strangled by someone he knew. A pathologist's report showed the coach had died by 'asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation,' they said earlier.

Woolmer was declared dead in hospital on Sunday after being found unconscious in his room. He was 58.

He died the day after Pakistan were humiliatingly dumped out of the cricket World Cup in the Caribbean by minnows Ireland.