Conspiracy theories about the death of Zia-ul-Haq
Encyclopedia
The President of Pakistan
, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
died in a plane crash on August 17, 1988, about which several conspiracy theories exist.
main battle tank, which the US was trying to persuade Pakistan to buy. He and his entourage flew to Bahawalpur
, about 330 mi (531.1 km) south of Islamabad
in the president's C-130 Hercules
aircraft, then flew to the test site by helicopter. Afterwards, they returned to Bahawalpur for lunch, then boarded the C-130 for the return flight to Islamabad.
The aircraft departed Bahawalpur early, ahead of a storm. The president's C-130 had been fitted with an air-conditioned VIP capsule where Zia and his American guests were seated. It was walled off from the flight crew and a passenger and baggage section in the rear. The plane was packed with Pakistani army officers, including General Akhtar Abdur Rehman, chairman of the Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as American Ambassador to Pakistan
Arnold Raphel
and General Herbert M. Wassom, the head of the U.S. Military aid mission to Pakistan.
Shortly after takeoff, the control tower lost contact with the aircraft. Witnesses cited in Pakistan's official investigation said that the C-130 began to pitch "in an up-and-down motion" while flying low shortly after take-off before going into a "near-vertical dive", exploding on impact, killing all on board.
which had narrowly avoided crashing.
Robert Oakley
, who replaced Arnold Raphel as US ambassador following the crash and helped to handle the investigation has also expressed this view. He has pointed out that 20 or 30 C-130s have suffered similar incidents. He has identified the mechanical fault as a problem with the hydraulics in the tail assembly. Although USAF pilots had handled similar emergencies, the Pakistani pilots were less well equipped to do so, lacking C-130 experience and also flying low.
The report concluded that the contamination of the elevator booster package might at worst have caused sluggish controls leading to overcontrol but not to an accident. In the absence of a mechanical cause, the Pakistani inquiry concluded that the crash was due to an act of sabotage. They found no conclusive evidence of an explosion on the aircraft, but said that chemicals that could be used in small explosives were detected in mango seeds and a piece of rope found on the aircraft. They also added that "the use of a chemical agent to incapacitate the pilots and thus perpetuate the accident therefore remains a distinct possibility".
No evidence has come to light to prove a conspiracy, although several theories do exist. The United States
, India
, followed by Afghanistan
and the Soviet Union
have all been suspected. In addition, Zia had enemies at a high level within Pakistan's own government.
(CIA) or by the Soviet KGB
. One theory had it that the CIA had spiked mangos with VX gas to eliminate Zia because of his unreliable commitment to a more democratic government and his loyalty to Afghan Mujahidin.
Another theory, also with little supporting evidence, is that the KGB
was involved, as retaliation for the US-Pakistani support for the Afghan insurgency against the USSR throughout the 1980s. Considerable evidence exists that the Soviet Union knew about the US-Pakistan support for the Mujahideen
, and the KGB might have seen this as an opportunity to punish both Pakistan and the United States. The existence of a motive, however, is not sufficient to prove KGB involvement.
General Hameed Gul, the head of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence agency at the time, suggested that the US might be responsible, even though the US Ambassador and military attaché were also killed. He told The Times
that the Pakistani President was killed in a conspiracy involving a "foreign power".
Early reports suggested that Raphel had only been summoned to join the flight at the last minute, which fueled conspiracy theories blaming the US. However, Raphel's widow has stated that her husband always planned to join General Zia on the aircraft, and that it was General Wassom who was added at the last minute.
A recently published book, refers to the murder of President Zia as linked to the CIA. ref:The Zia Protocols.
, brother of Benazir Bhutto
, the Pakistani politician who would ultimately gain most from Zia's departure. General Zia's son Ijaz-ul-Haq told Barbara Crossette a year after the crash that he was "101 percent sure" that Murtaza was involved. Benazir Bhutto suggested that the fatal crash might well have been an "act of God". She was also accused of having rejoiced at Zia's death, because Zia had ordered her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto hanged.
People have also pointed to some senior dissatisfied generals of the Pakistan Army
itself. General Mirza Aslam Beg
, who became Chief of Army Staff following General Zia's death, witnessed the crash from his aircraft, which had just taken off. Instead of returning to Bahawalpur, he headed for Islamabad, an action which later caused controversy and led some to allege that he was involved in the incident since he had reportedly been scheduled to fly with Zia in the flight, but had changed his plans at the last minute. He was later accused by Zia's son Ijaz-ul-Haq as being behind the attack
that he hated Zia, and held him responsible for the murder of a local religious figure, saying that "The day Zia flies with me, that will be his last flight".
, John Gunther Dean
, a former US ambassador
to India, blamed the Mossad
, the Israel
i intelligence agency
, for orchestrating Zia's assassination in retaliation for Pakistan developing a nuclear weapon to counteract India, and to prevent Zia, an effective Muslim leader, from continuing to influence US foreign policy.
".
The role of chief of first armored division, Maj.Gen. Mehmood Ali Durrani, remains suspicious who persuaded/tempted Gen.Zia to watch over the tank exercise at Bahawalpur.
President of Pakistan
The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...
, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
died in a plane crash on August 17, 1988, about which several conspiracy theories exist.
Crash
On August 17, 1988, General Zia and five of his generals visited a test site to observe a demonstration of the M1 AbramsM1 Abrams
The M1 Abrams is a third-generation main battle tank produced in the United States. It is named after General Creighton Abrams, former Army Chief of Staff and Commander of US military forces in Vietnam from 1968 to 1972. The M1 is a well armed, heavily armored, and highly mobile tank designed for...
main battle tank, which the US was trying to persuade Pakistan to buy. He and his entourage flew to Bahawalpur
Bahawalpur
Bahawalpur , located in the province of Punjab, is the twelfth largest city in Pakistan. The city was once the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur. The city was home to various Nawabs and counted as part of the Rajputana states...
, about 330 mi (531.1 km) south of Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
in the president's C-130 Hercules
C-130 Hercules
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation, and cargo transport...
aircraft, then flew to the test site by helicopter. Afterwards, they returned to Bahawalpur for lunch, then boarded the C-130 for the return flight to Islamabad.
The aircraft departed Bahawalpur early, ahead of a storm. The president's C-130 had been fitted with an air-conditioned VIP capsule where Zia and his American guests were seated. It was walled off from the flight crew and a passenger and baggage section in the rear. The plane was packed with Pakistani army officers, including General Akhtar Abdur Rehman, chairman of the Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as American Ambassador to Pakistan
United States Ambassador to Pakistan
The U.S. embassy in Karachi was established August 15, 1947 with Edward W. Holmes as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, pending the appointment of an ambassador. The first ambassador, Paul H. Alling, was appointed on September 20, 1947. Anne W. Patterson was nominated as United States Ambassador to...
Arnold Raphel
Arnold Lewis Raphel
Arnold Lewis Raphel was the 18th U.S. ambassador in Pakistan. He was killed when a plane in which he was a passenger mysteriously crashed near Bhawalpur with then Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq and Brigadier General Herbert M. Wassom, chief of the U.S. military group in Pakistan on August 17,...
and General Herbert M. Wassom, the head of the U.S. Military aid mission to Pakistan.
Shortly after takeoff, the control tower lost contact with the aircraft. Witnesses cited in Pakistan's official investigation said that the C-130 began to pitch "in an up-and-down motion" while flying low shortly after take-off before going into a "near-vertical dive", exploding on impact, killing all on board.
Investigation
Washington sent a team of USAF officers to assist the Pakistanis in the investigation, but the two sides reached sharply different conclusions.US conclusions
Mrs Ely-Raphel and Brigadier-General Wassom's widow were both told by US investigators that the crash had been caused by a mechanical problem common with the C-130, and that a similar incident had occurred to a C-130 in ColoradoColorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
which had narrowly avoided crashing.
Robert Oakley
Robert Oakley
Robert Bigger Oakley is a retired American diplomat. During his career as a Foreign Service Officer, Oakley served as United States Ambassador to Zaire, Somalia, and Pakistan, and later as a special envoy during the American involvement in Somalia in the early 1990s.-Department of State:Oakley...
, who replaced Arnold Raphel as US ambassador following the crash and helped to handle the investigation has also expressed this view. He has pointed out that 20 or 30 C-130s have suffered similar incidents. He has identified the mechanical fault as a problem with the hydraulics in the tail assembly. Although USAF pilots had handled similar emergencies, the Pakistani pilots were less well equipped to do so, lacking C-130 experience and also flying low.
Pakistani conclusions
Some weeks after the crash, a 27-page summary of a secret 365-page report was produced by Pakistani investigators in which they said that they had found evidence of possible problems with the aircraft's elevator booster package, as well as frayed or snapped control cables. Analysis by a US lab found "extensive contamination" by brass and aluminium particles in the elevator booster package, but the report said "failure of the elevator control system due to a mechanical failure... is ruled out". It cited the aircraft-maker Lockheed as saying that "even with the level of contamination found in the system, they have not normally experienced any problems other than wear".The report concluded that the contamination of the elevator booster package might at worst have caused sluggish controls leading to overcontrol but not to an accident. In the absence of a mechanical cause, the Pakistani inquiry concluded that the crash was due to an act of sabotage. They found no conclusive evidence of an explosion on the aircraft, but said that chemicals that could be used in small explosives were detected in mango seeds and a piece of rope found on the aircraft. They also added that "the use of a chemical agent to incapacitate the pilots and thus perpetuate the accident therefore remains a distinct possibility".
Theories
Barbara Crossette, bureau chief of The New York Times in South Asia from 1988 to 1991 has written that, "Of all the violent political deaths in the twentieth century, none with such great interest to the U.S. has been more clouded than the mysterious air crash that killed president (and Army Chief General) Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan in (August) 1988, a tragedy that also claimed the life of the serving American ambassador and most of General Zia’s top commanders".No evidence has come to light to prove a conspiracy, although several theories do exist. The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, followed by Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
have all been suspected. In addition, Zia had enemies at a high level within Pakistan's own government.
KGB or CIA Assassination
A common suspicion within Pakistan, although with no proof, is that the crash was a political assassination carried out by the American Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) or by the Soviet KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
. One theory had it that the CIA had spiked mangos with VX gas to eliminate Zia because of his unreliable commitment to a more democratic government and his loyalty to Afghan Mujahidin.
Another theory, also with little supporting evidence, is that the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
was involved, as retaliation for the US-Pakistani support for the Afghan insurgency against the USSR throughout the 1980s. Considerable evidence exists that the Soviet Union knew about the US-Pakistan support for the Mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
, and the KGB might have seen this as an opportunity to punish both Pakistan and the United States. The existence of a motive, however, is not sufficient to prove KGB involvement.
General Hameed Gul, the head of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence agency at the time, suggested that the US might be responsible, even though the US Ambassador and military attaché were also killed. He told The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
that the Pakistani President was killed in a conspiracy involving a "foreign power".
Early reports suggested that Raphel had only been summoned to join the flight at the last minute, which fueled conspiracy theories blaming the US. However, Raphel's widow has stated that her husband always planned to join General Zia on the aircraft, and that it was General Wassom who was added at the last minute.
A recently published book, refers to the murder of President Zia as linked to the CIA. ref:The Zia Protocols.
Pakistan
Some have suspected the anti-Zia group al-Zulfikar, led by Murtaza BhuttoMurtaza Bhutto
Dr. Mir Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and the Member of the Parliament of Pakistan, representing Pakistan People's Party from the Larkana constituency...
, brother of Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
, the Pakistani politician who would ultimately gain most from Zia's departure. General Zia's son Ijaz-ul-Haq told Barbara Crossette a year after the crash that he was "101 percent sure" that Murtaza was involved. Benazir Bhutto suggested that the fatal crash might well have been an "act of God". She was also accused of having rejoiced at Zia's death, because Zia had ordered her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto hanged.
People have also pointed to some senior dissatisfied generals of the Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
itself. General Mirza Aslam Beg
Mirza Aslam Beg
General Mirza Aslam Beg, SBt, HI, NI, afwc, psc , is a retired four-star general who was the Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army succeeding General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, after the latter died in an air crash on 17 August 1988...
, who became Chief of Army Staff following General Zia's death, witnessed the crash from his aircraft, which had just taken off. Instead of returning to Bahawalpur, he headed for Islamabad, an action which later caused controversy and led some to allege that he was involved in the incident since he had reportedly been scheduled to fly with Zia in the flight, but had changed his plans at the last minute. He was later accused by Zia's son Ijaz-ul-Haq as being behind the attack
Pilot
It was mentioned in a piece in The Sunday Times on August 24, 2008 that the pilot of the C-130, Wing Commander Mash'hood Hassan, had previously confided to an associate of Abdul Qadeer KhanAbdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan , also known in Pakistan as Mohsin-e-Pakistan , D.Eng, Sc.D, HI, NI , FPAS; more widely known as Dr. A. Q...
that he hated Zia, and held him responsible for the murder of a local religious figure, saying that "The day Zia flies with me, that will be his last flight".
Mossad
In the Fall 2005 World Policy JournalWorld Policy Journal
World Policy Journal is a magazine on international relations published by SAGE Publications for the World Policy Institute. It contains primarily policy essays, but also book reviews, interviews, and historical essays...
, John Gunther Dean
John Gunther Dean
John Gunther Dean is a distinguished career United States diplomat. From 1974-1988, Dean served as the United States Ambassador to five different nations under four different U.S. Presidents.-Early years:...
, a former US ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to India, blamed the Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
, the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i intelligence agency
Intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
, for orchestrating Zia's assassination in retaliation for Pakistan developing a nuclear weapon to counteract India, and to prevent Zia, an effective Muslim leader, from continuing to influence US foreign policy.
Military Generals
It has also been postulated by some sources that Gen.Zia's mysterious death benefited the then Top brass of Pakistani Military,especially the person who became the head of the Pakistani military after the death of Gen.Zia.why he was using another plane instead of boarding Pakistan-1? entails the mist of conspiracy theory.".
The role of chief of first armored division, Maj.Gen. Mehmood Ali Durrani, remains suspicious who persuaded/tempted Gen.Zia to watch over the tank exercise at Bahawalpur.