Conspiracy theories about the death of Zia-ul-Haq

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The President of Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq died in a plane crash on August 17, 1988, about which several conspiracy theories exist.

After witnessing a tank parade in Bahawalpur, Zia had left the small town in Punjab province by C-130 Hercules aircraft. Shortly after a smooth take-off, the control tower lost contact with the aircraft. Witnesses who saw the plane in the air afterwards claim it was flying erratically. Directly afterwards, the aircraft nosedived and exploded on impact, killing General Zia and several other senior army generals, 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. A common suspicion within Pakistan, although with no proof, is that the crash was a political assassination carried out by the senior arm of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or Soviet KGB. Other groups who have fallen under suspicion include the Afghan Communists and Shi'ite separatist groups. Other more direct accusation point the finger at rival India whose RAW intelligence agency have covertly carried out several assassinations within the country. But still many political and higher military figures openly say that this crash was actually an assassination carried by CIA to kill Zia and their own Ambassador, after they had done all the work ordered by USA so that American government could hide the facts about the Soviet-Afghan war.

No evidence has come to light to prove a conspiracy, although several theories do exist. In the World Policy Journal^{[citation needed]}, John Gunther Dean, a former US ambassador to India, blamed the Mossad, the Israeli 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.

General Hamid Gul, who would become the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) after Zia's death, has stated that the CIA was behind the plane crash^{[citation needed]}, but his claim appears unlikely, considering Arnold Raphel, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, and General Herbert Wassom, head of the American military attache in Islamabad, were also aboard the plane when it crashed.

The FBI were delayed by the US State Department to investigate the scene and it was only a year later they were allowed in to investigate the deaths. Though a report on the crash was written, the FBI have refused to release it.

Which government, was the question. Pakistan viewed itself as being surrounded by enemies, the leaders of almost all of which wanted Zia dead. India was the top suspect, followed by Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. In addition, Zia had enemies at the top level within the government of Pakistan itself. Former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto was accused of having rejoiced at Zia's death, because Zia had ordered her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto hanged. Also, Afghanistan under the Communist rule of Najibullah clearly wanted Zia dead, as Zia was aiding the Afghan Mujahidin who were fighting to overthrow Najibullah.

The other question was how a nerve gas bomb could have, theoretically, gotten into the cockpit. The aircraft had been under 24-hour armed guard. Access to the aircraft was strictly controlled by the Pakistan military. It seemed impossible that someone could have sneaked in and placed the bomb there without the knowledge of persons inside the Pakistan armed forces.

People have pointed to some senior dissatisfied generals of the Pakistan Army itself [1] (for example, Mirza Aslam Beg, who was scheduled to fly with Zia in this flight, but changed his plans at the last minute - He was later accused by Zia's son Ijaz-ul-Haq as being behind the attack), the United States, the Soviet Union, Israel, the Bhutto family, Al-Zulfiqar and even the Ahmadiyya sect as a potential suspect. Conspiracies about the deaths persist.

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". [2]

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