The Assassination Of President Zia

A recent visit was to Pakistan. It reminds me of something that will not go away. It is a thought about the assassination of former president Zia.

This has been added to the compound posting on this blog, "Investigations" .

Pakistani President Muhammad Zia ul Haq boarded a C-130 after witnessing a demonstration of a tank that his army was thinking of buying. The date was August 17, 1988. Shortly after takeoff contact was lost with the plane. It was seen flying erratically until it crashed into the ground, killing all on board. There was no sign of an explosion before the plane crashed.

Zia was Pakistan's president. The country has since switched to the parliamentary system and is led by a prime minister.

The C-130 was in service with the Pakistani Air Force but had been made in the U.S. The U.S. conclusion was that the crash had been caused by mechanical issues. This explanation is not widely believed because the plane was seen flying erratically for a period of time before crashing and this does not explain why radio contact was also lost.

Since there was no sign of a bomb or explosion, nor disintegration of the aircraft before striking the ground, the most widely-believed explanation for the crash is that a chemical agent disabled the crew. They could neither pilot the plane nor call for help.

Endless speculation has been written about who was behind the assassination. Pakistan was, at the time, a U.S. ally during the Soviet war in neighboring Afghanistan. But attacking aircraft in this manner was not a usual tactic in the Afghan war and assassinating Zia would not end Pakistani support of the Mujahedin in the war.

There is the story of a Pakistani general, who happened to become the next Chief of Staff, that was supposed to fly back to Islamabad on the same plane as Zia, but changed his plans at the last minute and flew on another plane.

The trouble with that, aside from being too obvious, is that top members of Pakistan's military had been killed on the plane as well. Sabotaging the plane would make plenty of enemies in the military for whoever was behind it.

Zia had been promoted to Army Chief of Staff by President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He then overthrew Bhutto and took his place as president. Bhutto was later executed. Bhutto's daughter, Benazir, would later lead the country herself until she was assassinated following a return from exile.

Supposing that Bhutto supporters were behind Zia's assassination is problematic because first, many top military personnel of the country were also killed. Second, Bhutto had been a U.S. ally and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan was also killed. Third, while Pakistan does have somewhat of a tumultuous political history, attacks on aircraft like this were not part of that history.

Two things are very clear. Whoever was behind this was very skilled in attacking aircraft, and they were fine with killing Americans. Pakistan's intelligence agency concluded that a "foreign power" was involved, but didn't give any names.

Here is what I would like to add. I do not have any kind of proof. I just want to add a direction to the assassination that I have never seen written about.

Pakistani military forces have been stationed in the Middle East, although have never been in combat with Israel. In the 1979 siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Pakistani special forces were engaged in the recapture of the mosque.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, during which Israel captured the West Bank and the original city of Jerusalem, many Palestinians moved eastward into Jordan. The Palestinians outnumbered the native Jordanians.

The Palestinians launched attacks against Israel without consulting with the Jordanian Government. In 1970 this led to what is known as the Dawson Field Hijackings. Four planes were hijacked and brought to Jordan. The passengers were released and the global press invited. Then, with the attention of the world's press, the four planes were destroyed by explosives.

We saw the Dawson Field Hijackings in the section of the compound posting on this blog, "Investigations" December 2018, 8) INSIGHT INTO 9 / 11.

Following this the Government of Jordan, led by the well-known King Hussein, felt that it had no choice but to take back control of the country. This was especially because some of the Palestinians were openly calling for the overthrown of King Hussein.

The Jordanian Royal Family was recently in the news due to internal turmoil. We visited it in the visit on this blog, "Jordan And The Hashemites" January 2021.

This September 1970 conflict is referred to as the Jordanian Civil War or as "Black September". As it turns out Muhammad Zia ul-Haq was a general in Pakistan's Army who was stationed in Jordan at the time. Zia was instrumental in helping King Hussein to defeat the Palestinians, and take back control of the country.

After the conflict the organisation called "Black September" was formed to get revenge on the Jordanian Government. It assassinated the Prime Minister of Jordan. There had been earlier assassination attempts on King Hussein.

Black September also turned to attacking Israel and is best-known for the hostage-taking of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

So my reasoning is that if an organization like Black September was formed to strike back at members of the Jordanian Government in retaliation for the war that it launched against them, and if the military leadership of Zia was so important to the conduct of that war, then isn't it logical to presume that Zia would be a target as well?

Attacking aircraft was a hallmark of organizations like Black September. There was the Dawson Field Hijackings, and any number of other attacks on aircraft. Yet I have never seen this avenue explored in the assassination of President Zia.