Israelis killed Zia

[A.Rahman]

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Israelis killed Zia, suspects ex-US ambassador

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The Israeli secret agency Mossad most probably killed Gen Ziaul Haq, suspects John Gunther Dean, who was the American ambassador to India in 1988, according to an article in the latest issue of World Policy Journal by Barbara Crossette, who was the South Asia Bureau Chief of the New York Times from 1988 to 1991.

When Mr Dean expressed his views to the State Department at the time and insisted on a thorough investigation of the Israeli-Indian axis, he was accused of mental imbalance and relieved of his duties.

Dean was a distinguished diplomat who has garnered more ambassadorships than most envoys. He had strong opinions and years of valuable experience. As an independent thinker, he often had problems being a good “diplomat”.

Dean believes that the Israelis wanted to stop Pakistan’s military from making nuclear weapons. They had attacked Iraq’s nuclear facilities at Osirak in 1981 and believed Gen Zia when he declared in 1987 that Pakistan was a “screwdriver’s turn away from the bomb”.

Dean, now 80, has remained silent for nearly 20 years but is now collecting his papers and is ready to share his thoughts. He was declared mentally unfit for demanding an investigation into the crash. He lost his medical clearance and security clearance because of his views and was forced to seek retirement in 1988. After he made the charge following the air crash in which the then US ambassador to Pakistan, Arnie Raphel was also killed, he was sent to Switzerland to “rest” for six weeks and only then allowed to return to New Delhi to pack his bags and quit. He is now opening the case because he wants to clear the charge of “mental imbalance” and ask the questions that have long remained buried about the aircrash that killed Gen Zia.

Dean says that when he was ambassador to India, various pro-Israel Congressmen and other US policy makers constantly asked him why he wasn’t cooperating with the Israelis to thwart Pakistan’s nuclear programme and demonise Pakistan. He says he was asked to persuade the Indians to be more pro-Israel too. He is on record as having alleged that the Israelis tried to kill him in 1980 when he was US ambassador to the Lebanon because he disagreed with Israeli policies. He was accused of being “pro-Palestinian” in the Israeli Knesset (parliament).

The US did not allow the FBI or any other agency to carry out a full-fledged investigation into the crash.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...3-12-2005_pg1_2

 

[miroslav]

I don't know why some people are so intrested in diging old graves???
(I am reffering the US ambassador who wrote it).

Some truths are sooo hidden that they never come out.

Miro

 

[antiobl]

Originally posted by A.Rahman@Dec 4 2005, 02:38 AM
......
........Mossad most probably killed Gen Ziaul Haq, suspects John Gunther Dean, who was the American ambassador to India in 1988


..........He is on record as having alleged that the Israelis tried to kill him in 1980 when he was US ambassador to the Lebanon because he disagreed with Israeli policies. He was accused of being “pro-Palestinian” in the Israeli Knesset (parliament)................

Nobody could touch Zia except his close soldiers. How do you think Musharraf got attacked twice in the span of weeks? God forbid, assasins were successful in Musharraf's case, who would you blame? Mossad, Raw, or CIA?

Towards the end of 1988, Zia was moving away from hardened Islamic generals and many didn't like it. Zia's successor Gen. Aslam Beg is known opponent of US policies in the Middle East.

February 21, 2003 Pak air force chief Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, his wife and several senior officers were among 17 people killed when their plane crashed. Again this was an internal struggle between pro-American and a small group of Anti-American generals.

Best regards

 

[EagleEyes]

I heard that Zia was the one who wanted to unite all the muslim nations, and make one stronger muslim nation.

He had started to have very strong ties with the other muslim nations, and things would have been more successfull if he would have stayed in power for a little more time.

Zia, used to always avoid traveling in the air planes. Because he knew that there are some people after him who wants to kill him, but many think he didn't knew who were behind those threats and attacks he was getting.

The plane in which Zia was shot down was a pretty advanced protected American plane (equivalant to U.S Presidents plane). Many say it was the Americans who killed Zia or at least they had some what hand in it. But the actual person who killed Zia was some general ( i forgot his name.)

Zia wasn't to be traveling in that plane and he was avoiding it, but the same general who was a suspect of killing him, convinced him to travel in that plane telling him that the plane is secured, and he must not avoid the flight cause it was necessary.

Zia picked all the generals and Arnie Raphel to travel with him so there isn't any chance that some one would shoot down the plane, but in the end the general (suspect) had a remote bomb (or something) and he destroyed the plane. It is said that the general was convinced and were given benefits to kill him, and he was also to be getting a high level job. So thats why he did that.

The above information cannot neccessarily be the facts, its the stories told by people.

Regards,
Ahsan F.

 

[Sharjeel]

Originally posted by miroslav@Dec 3 2005, 09:48 PM
I don't know why some people are so intrested in diging old graves???
(I am reffering the US ambassador who wrote it).

Some truths are sooo hidden that they never come out.

Miro

[post=4335]Quoted post[/post]​

lol.

why are the jews still anti nazi?

because there is a good reason to be...man learns from his past.

 

[A.Rahman]

Originally posted by Yahya@Dec 3 2005, 07:35 PM
lol.

why are the jews still anti nazi?

because there is a good reason to be...man learns from his past.

[post=4349]Quoted post[/post]​

Couldnt have said it better

 

[antiobl]

Originally posted by WebMaster@Dec 4 2005, 03:29 AM
I heard that Zia was the one who wanted to unite all the muslim nations, and make one stronger muslim nation.

No! It was the dreamer socialist Bhutto who wanted to unite Muslim nations. Zia was much more pragmatic than him.

Zia was replaced by rabid Islamist like Aslam Beg as COAS.

Also Zia's ISI director Akhtar Abul Rehman was replaced by another Islamist Hamid Gul.

Zia's son, and Gen Rehman's son are on the record accusing Aslam Beg for killing their fathers.

Best regards

 

[Nasir]

Ex U.S. ambassador wants inquiry into Pakistan assassination
Editorial
Sunday 4th December, 2005

The former U.S. Ambassador to India, John Dean, has accused Israel of being behind the assassination of Pakistan President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1988.

Dean made the allegation in an article in the World Policy Journal. He said he believed the attack was carried out by Mossad, Israel's intelligence service.

It happened on August 17 1988. Pak One, Pakistan's equivalent of Air Force One, took off from a military air base outside of Bahawalpur in the late afternoon. On board was Pakistan's president, joint chief of staffs, and most of the Pakistan army's top generals, the U.S. Ambassador to pakistan Arnie Raphael and General Herbert M. Wassom, the chief U.S. military official in Pakistan, and a four-man crew. Within minutes the plane crashed and all 30 on board were killed.

The U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz pressed the FBI not to participate in the ensuing investigation, notwithstanding two very senior U.S. officials had been killed in the incident, and that a substantial team of investigators had already been assembled. Schultz was supported by the Pentagon.

The State Department actively promoted the notion that the incident was an accident and even leaked stories to that effect to several newspapers including the New York Times. The official investigation subsequently concluded the plane crashed as the result of sabotage, and not any mechanical failure.

Ambassador Dean, who served under Schultz, now says Israel brought the plane down.

Dean said he was often asked to persuade India to have closer ties with Israel.

Dean who was once Richard Nixon's White House Counsel went on to become the Ambassador to Denmark in 1975 and then Ambassador to Lebanon in 1978 before being appointed to similar posts in Thailand in 1981 and India in 1985.

It was in Lebanon between 1978 and 1981 that Dean first incurred the wrath of Israel. Caught up in a vicious civil war, Dean traveled the length and breadth of the country negotiating with more than a dozen different factions to try and restore peace. The U.S. had a strong presence in Lebanon as did Israel. Dean was a joint signatory on Lebanon's bank accounts with Lebanese President Elias Sarkis.

Dean was authorized to negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) if it was deemed to be in America’s “national security interests.” When an “interlocutor” in Washington wondered if the Palestinians could help release American diplomatic hostages being held in Tehran, Dean sought—and received—Palestinian help. PLO leader Yasser Arafat and his aide Abu Jihad themselves went to Tehran in 1979 and secured the release of 13 Americans. Never, Dean noted, did the two receive any thanks from Washington for their efforts.

Anyone who gets between the U.S. president and the prime minister of Israel “finds himself in trouble,” Dean was quoted as saying in The Washington Report.

Riding in his armored limousine in Beirut with ardently pro-Israel Congressman Steve Solarz, a bullet hit the car. “What’s that?” Solarz asked. “Just a bullet,” Dean replied, “but don’t worry. We are armored.” Solarz insisted on returning to the American Embassy, where he cabled home, “Arafat shot at me.”

According to The Washington Report, to stress his support for the sovereignty of Lebanon Dean always cabled protests to Tel Aviv and the State Department in Washington whenever Israeli planes intruded—as they frequently did—into Lebanese airspace. These reminders irritated U.S. Ambassador to Israel Sam Lewis, with whom Dean preserved cordial relations but who suffered to a notable degree from what the U.S. Foreign Service calls “localitis”.. Other irritants flowed from Dean’s urging Lebanese Christian leader Bashir Gemayel to stop seeing Israeli Mossad officers.

Dean’s staunch defense of Lebanese (and American) interests came to a head in the early evening of Aug. 27, 1980, when, according to all the evidence, said The Washington Report, Mossad tried but failed to assassinate Dean and his family. The long-rumored attempted murder of Dean by Mossad, was publicly confirmed for the first time in talk by Dean in Washington.

En-route from his residence in Lebanon’s hills to the Beirut residence of the AUB president, Dean’s limousine and convoy took 21 rifle bullets. The automobile bearing the ambassador and Mrs. Dean was also struck by two light anti-tank weapons. The shot-out tires on the Deans’ bulletproof car automatically reinflated. The second car, however, carrying their daughter and her fiancé, did not have bulletproof tires and was momentarily stranded. The security guards in the convoy’s third car pushed the daughter and her fiancé into the Deans’ vehicle, and they sped away. Incredibly, none of the ambassador’s party or security guards were seriously wounded. Some shots struck where Dean was sitting, but bulletproof plastic windows saved his life, said The Washington Report.

Picked up by Lebanese security, the anti-tank canisters had made-in-America markings. After unanswered telegrams to the State Department and all but silent responses to his telephone inquiries, Dean eventually learned that the anti-tank weapons were sold and shipped to Israel in 1974. Dean apparently mused to himself on the irony of an American ambassador being subjected to an Israeli assassination attempt with American weapons supplied to Israel for defense.

On the assassination of Arafat’s personal assistant, Abu Hassan, in early 1979, Ambassador Dean was told by the Lebanese intelligence service that three Mossad officers, bearing Belgian and Australian passports, had come to Beirut masquerading as tourists for the purpose of killing Abu Hassan, whose greatest “drawback,” in Dean‘s opinion, was that he was close to the Americans.

While Ambassador Dean did not commend himself to Israel, he very much gained the respect and affection of Lebanon which, on his departure form Beirut, awarded him its highest decoration. And out of the turmoil of Lebanon he also kept the confidence of the United States, which subsequently honored him with the additional ambassadorships, in Thailand and India.

It was in India in 1988, three years after his appointment, that the Pakistan president was assassinated, and when Dean conveyed his views to the State Department, that Israel was responsible, he was accused of being mentally unbalanced, and was relieved of his duties.

Now Dean is challenging the State Department's charge and is calling for a fresh inquiry into the plane crash that killed the Pakistan President U.S. Ambassador along with twenty-nine others.

His theory though will compete with a number of other such allegations made since the high-profile crash.

Soviet Russia at the time was in the final throes of its war with Pakistan's neighbour Afghanistan and was irritated by Zia's close affiliation with the United States. The U.S. ruled out any Soviet involvement as it concluded it would not have engaged in an attack against a U.S. ambassador and senior military chief, notwithstanding Raphael and Wassom were not scheduled to travel on Pak One on the day of the crash.

Zis's daughter Rubina Salim claimed the United States engineered the attack even going so far as to say Raphael was aware of the plot and was prepared to die for his country. 'Yes, he was going to commit suicide,' she said. 'Where these people's interest in involved, they feel no compunction about getting their own killed. It makes no difference. If you have to do something for your country and nation, and you have been trained for that purpose, you will, of course, do what you are asked to do. We tried very hard to meet the American ambassador's wife (Mrs Raphel) but America did not allow anyone to meet her. And to date no one has been allowed to meet her. America employed her in its State Department,' she said.

Asked why the U.S. would want to kill Zia, Salim said it was because he was working for an 'Islamic bloc' which would have made the Islamic world strong, something Washington did not want.

Other conspiracy theorists point to elements within the Pakistan military. Vanity Fair speculated that the pilots were incapacitated by a nerve agent similar to VX, which pointed to the participation of 'an intelligence agency.'

The family of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto could also be considered a suspect. Bhutto was the Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1977 when Zia staged a bloodless coup and took power. He subsequently engineered what are generally considered trumped up charges of corruption against Bhutto and he was subsequently hanged. Benazir Bhutto, his daughter, became Prime Minister following elections after Zia's death. Her brother Mir Murtaza Bhutto, for the 9 years previous had run an anti-Zia guerrilla group, which shared offices with the PLO in Kabul, and later Damascus called Al Zulfikar or 'the sword'. Its proclaimed mission, according to Edward Jay Epstein, was to destroy the Zia regime, and the means it used included sabotage, highjackings and assassinations in Pakistan. It demonstrated it had the capacity to carry out complex international terrorist operations when it hijacked a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 727 with 100 passenger aboard in 1981, flew it first to Kabul, where it executed one passenger and refueled, and then to Damascus, where, with the assistance of the Syrian government, it forced Zia to exchange 55 political prisoners for the passengers. It originally had taken credit for the destruction of Pak One in a phone call to the BBC although subsequently, after it was announced that the American Ambassador was aboard it, Mir Murtaza Bhutto retracted this claim. But Mir Murtaza admitted that he had attempted to assassinate Zia on five previous occasions. And one of these earlier Al-Zulfikar assassination attempts involved attempting to blow Pak One out of the sky with Zia aboard it by firing a Soviet-built SAM 7 missile at it. On that occasion, the missile missed, and when the terrorists who fired it were captured they admitted that they had been trained for the mission in Kabul by Mir Murtaza Bhutto and his advisers.

Benazir Bhutto didn't believe her brother was involved, nor the Soviets, the U.S. or Israel. She said it was divine intervention. 'Zia's death must have been an act of god,' she said.

India has also been mentioned. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, according to Epstein, said publicly two days before the fatal plane crash that Pakistan would have cause 'to regret its behavior' in covertly supplying weapons to Sikhs terrorists in India. The Sikhs, who were attempting to secede from India and create an independent nation called Khalistan, were a crucial problem for Gandhi. They had assassinated his mother when she was prime minister and, with some 2000 armed guerrillas located mainly around the Pakistan border, the death toll from this civil war was approaching 200 a month. Zia had been meeting with top Sikh leaders, according to Gandhi, and providing guerrillas with AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers and sanctuary across the Pakistan border. In response, India had organized a special unit in its intelligence service, known by the initials R.A.S., to deal with Pakistan.

It seems just about everyone in the region and elsehwhere had a reason to bring down Zia's plane on August 17 1988. Hence there was little appetite for a full-blown and independent investigation. Dean is now pushing for this to occur. There is a case for him to be supported. It seems there are many unexplained events that preceded and followed what can only be described as a cowardly terrorist act that liquidated thirty people for the benefit of some one, group, or government, or combination thereof.

Source: http://story.northkoreatimes.com/p.x/ct/9/...2833276bccc267/

 

[A.Rahman]

Dec. 13, 1982
Pakistan's Zia talks about the Soviets, the U.S. and Islam

Five and a half years ago, when the military seized power in Pakistan, Army Chief of Staff General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq lived in the modest bungalow in Rawalpindi where he still resides. As President, Zia might have moved into the official residence in Islamabad. But then, as now, the President seemed more content with the daily reminders of a soldier's life and duties. Last week, in his library, surrounded by the trophies, photographs and regimental emblems of a long military career, President Zia received TIME New Delhi Bureau Chief Dean Brelis. Excerpts t from the interview:

On Pakistan's security: Pakistan is faced with a problem next door, in Afghanistan, where the Soviet Union now has 100,000 troops. I don't think you can intimidate a nation like Pakistan with the presence of troops next door. But it has brought a qualitative change in the total geopolitical environment of this region. A superpower occupying a free country, an Islamic country, just because it wants to secure its underbelly, is something of great concern to us. Irrespective of the size, population or strength of a country, people have to exist in their own right, in accordance with international rules of business, of safeguarding their sovereignty.

On the Soviet Union: I know that the Soviet Union is looking for a solution to the Afghanistan problem. The Soviet Union is in difficulty. It is in difficulty internally. It is in difficulty in Poland. It is in difficulty in Kampuchea, indirectly. And it is in great difficulty in Afghanistan. This is my own view, and I hope I'm right: if they can find a face-saving device, the Soviets do want to withdraw from Afghanistan. As for Pakistan, we have made it abundantly clear that there are four basic principles upon which we cannot compromise: the Soviet troops must withdraw; the [Afghan] refugees must return to their homes with dignity; the nonaligned status of Afghanistan must be returned; and—I'm adding one on my own—we will accept an Afghanistan friendly to the Soviet Union.

On his upcoming meeting with President Reagan: In my own humble way I hope to let him know the perception that I have of my region. We're not a global power. We have regional interests. Sometimes looking at a region from 10,000 miles away, you can get a blurry picture. I hope that I will be able to present a clearer picture to President Reagan.

On the delivery of U.S.-built F-16s: Pakistan's military inventory is of Korean War vintage. We are not producers of military hardware, and we cannot afford to go out every two or three years and buy new equipment. We have to look ahead for 20 years. We are very grateful to President Reagan. When we got the offer of F-16s, we jumped. With this aircraft, our borders, which are now threatened by the Soviet presence in Afghanistan, will be somewhat secure. Of course, 40 planes cannot make all the difference, but the presence of a superior aircraft gives you at least that much moral as well as military ascendancy.

On relations with India: We want a peaceful relationship with India. The fear [of war] is more in the minds of Indians than it is in Pakistanis. India is a much larger country than Pakistan. Today there is a lobby inside India for a peaceful relationship—in the minds of intellectuals, journalists, common citizens. I noticed it in my very short stay [in New Delhi last month]. If there is good will in the leadership of the two countries, I see no reason why India and Pakistan cannot live in peace.

On the resurgence of Islam: The resurgence of Islam has different connotations in different environments. Please don't confuse fundamentalism in Islam, as seen by the West sometimes, with fanaticism or bigotry or rigidity. We in Pakistan feel that Islam has to be very flexible, accommodating the requirements of modern life. We feel that it is more than a religion. It encompasses your entire life. It was the Islamic movement that created this country; otherwise, we might well have been part of India. Islam is for everyone. We are trying to revive the ideology of Islam on which Pakistan was created. So in Pakistan you will not find a theocracy. We are trying to revive the moral values of society through a process of evolution, not revolution.

On Pakistan's nuclear capability: I am very categorical about this: Pakistan has no nuclear bomb. And Pakistan has no intentions of having a nuclear capability of JORDAN military significance. We have a modest nuclear capability for which we are trying to acquire a bit of technology for peaceful purposes. We have a nuclear plant in Karachi. We are trying to build another nuclear plant so that by 1984 the gap in our energy requirements will be filled. That is all.

On China: We view China as an emerging power that will play a very constructive role in Asia. It is China that has enabled us to stand on our own in the technological field, whether it be refitting tanks, aircraft or a fertilizer factory for the growth of agriculture. In our relationship of 20 years, of which nearly 16 have included very critical moments for this region, China has proved it is a power that believes in principles. China will contribute a lot to the future of Asia.

On future elections: I am still a caretaker. I am not an elected representative. I am the head of a military regime that is trying to look after this not-so-small region. We are at the crossroads of Southeast Asia and Southwest Asia. We are a backyard of the [Persian] Gulf. We are now a front-line state. Under these circumstances, we know that a lot of people are engaged in subversive activities. Pakistan today is the target of many countries. From the point of view of the Westerner, elections are a way of life. In Pakistan that is not so. We have lost half a country [formerly East Pakistan, now Bangladesh] as a result of the 1970 election. Elections to Pakistan are an anathema. Elections create crisis in Pakistan. A little while ago, politics in Pakistan meant violence, character assassination, polarization. It is my aim to inculcate positive Islamic values, and then, at the proper time, I will have no other option but to hold elections and let the people return their truly elected representatives. That time is in the not-too-distant future. It is not a decade away, but it is not weeks away. I think in a couple of years' time we should be able to have general elections at the national and provincial level.

Source: TIME Magzine
Date: Dec. 13, 1982

 

[A.Rahman]

Pakistan Death in the Skies
A suspicious crash kills President Zia and destabilizes a nation


Aug. 29, 1988

Mohammed Zia ul-Haq spent his last hours on a dusty patch of desert in remote Bahawalpur, 330 miles south of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. Accompanied by U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel, the Pakistani President watched field tests of the American-made M-1 Abrams tank, which he was interested in buying for his country's army. After spending the day observing the high-tech vehicle climb around the dunes, Zia, Raphel and a large entourage boarded a U.S.-built C-130 transport to fly back to the military airport at Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.

The plane was in the air no more than a few minutes when disaster struck. Witnesses say black smoke belched from the aircraft's fuselage. Seconds later the plane was engulfed in a ball of fire, and villagers on the ground watched with horror as it plummeted to the earth, tumbling nose over tail like a toy as it fell. The huge turboprop bounced twice after hitting the sandy plain, then came down a third and final time, exploding on impact. All 30 people aboard were killed, including Zia, 64; Raphel, 45; Brigadier General Herbert Wassom, 49, the chief of the U.S. military mission in Pakistan; and five top Pakistani generals. "It was so hot we could not get close," said a distressed villager who rushed to the scene. "We could not help them."

The crash, which officials immediately labeled suspicious, came at a crucial time for Pakistan and the entire region in which Zia had made himself a major diplomatic player. During his eleven years in power, longer than any other Pakistani head of state, Zia brooked little opposition at home and failed to groom a successor. Last May he summarily dismissed his handpicked civilian government and reestablished one-man rule, thus ensuring a legacy of political disarray. Said Benazir Bhutto, whose Pakistan People's Party has led recent agitation to restore civilian rule: "I do not regret the death of Zia."

Abroad, Zia pursued a shrewd foreign policy that aligned him squarely with the West. He used the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the revolution in Iran to make Pakistan the West's bulwark in Southwest Asia. He welcomed some 3 million Afghan refugees who poured over Pakistan's western border to escape the civil war, and enthusiastically helped ship U.S. and Chinese arms to the Afghan rebels. His reward: more than $700 million this year in U.S. aid. Secretary of State George Shultz last week called Zia a "great fighter for freedom." Shultz led the U.S. delegation to Zia's Saturday funeral in Islamabad, which was thronged by 200,000 mourners. Robert Oakley, the Near East expert for the National Security Council, has been designated the new U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan.

Zia was succeeded by Ghulam Ishaq Khan, 73, who as chairman of the Senate was next in line to the presidency. Regarded widely as a transitional figure, Ishaq Khan declared a state of emergency and appointed an emergency council that the military is expected to dominate. He heartened Pakistan's democratic opposition, however, by announcing that elections would take place in November as planned.

Even before teams of U.S. and Pakistani investigators had begun sorting through the wreckage of the plane, many were convinced that its passengers were victims of terrorism. Officials speculated that Zia's plane was either struck by a surface-to-air missile or, more likely, blown up by a bomb planted aboard and detonated by remote control from the ground. Said Riaz Mohammed Khan, a spokesman for the Pakistan government: "Personally, I am 100% sure -- not 99%, 100% -- that it was sabotage."

One prime suspect is the Khad, the Soviet-trained Afghan secret police, which in the past several years has been blamed for hundreds of terrorist bombings in Pakistan. Over the past few months, Kabul and Moscow have issued strident warnings to Islamabad to stop allowing arms for the Afghan rebels, or mujahedin, to be smuggled across the Pakistani border into Afghanistan. Just days before Zia's death, the Kremlin issued a statement saying the Pakistani actions could not "be further tolerated." But many Western diplomats doubt that Moscow would go so far as assassinating Zia, and it is assumed that the Khad would not have acted without Soviet approval.

If the Khad did not blow up Zia's plane, the President had a long list of other enemies with a motive for doing so, including militant political opposition groups and dissidents within the army. "Zia didn't have many friends left," said a U.S. congressional staffer. "Those who didn't dislike him hated him."

To his enemies, Zia was rightly seen as tough, uncompromising, even brutal. He ordered hundreds of dissidents arrested and imprisoned under the harshest conditions, and many were publicly flogged, in accordance with his policy of applying Islamic law to wrongdoers. Those who cultivated private relationships with Zia, however, came away with another impression -- that of a soft-spoken, self-effacing, often charming man who viewed himself as a servant of the people. "I really have been a reluctant ruler," he told a group of reporters recently. "But I am not a person to just give up in disgust and walk away. I am determined to stay here until I solve all of the many problems that continue to face our country."

Zia seized power in July 1977, 14 months after being appointed army chief of staff by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir's father. "I am a military man," the general said at the time. "I will step down soon." But he did not. He had the popular Bhutto arrested for conspiring to murder a political opponent. Two years later, despite international pleas and protests, Bhutto was hanged.

In the years following his coup, Zia suppressed political activity, frequently justifying his actions by saying Pakistan was not ready for democracy. Only in the mid-1980s did he reluctantly loosen his grip on power, sponsoring highly restrictive nonparty elections. He then confined himself to foreign and military affairs, while his choice for Prime Minister, Mohammed Khan Junejo, steadily accrued political power at home.

Last May, acting under pressure from hard-liners in the military who resented Junejo's attempts to increase civilian control, Zia dissolved the government. His sudden death thus leaves Pakistan with neither a strong military leader nor a functioning civilian government. For the future, the man to watch is General Mirza Aslam Baig, 57, whom Ishaq Khan appointed to be the new army chief of staff, Pakistan's most powerful military post. A quiet man with an aloof manner, Baig is described by those who know him as a professional soldier with no political ambitions. Baig attended the tank trials along with Zia but had to make another stop on the way to Rawalpindi and therefore returned on a different plane. Unlike some other generals, Baig treated Junejo and his government with respect, and Western diplomats hope he will support a return to civilian rule. Few believe, however, that the military will readily give up its traditional prerogatives. One Western diplomat described the domination of the emergency council by military officers, both active and retired, as "the edge of the wedge" that will usher in military rule.

Pakistan's numerous and frustrated political parties may take to the streets ) if the scheduled elections are not held. Benazir Bhutto said from her Karachi home that she was satisfied the new government was following the constitution by allowing the Nov. 16 elections to proceed. Some analysts have speculated that Zia deliberately scheduled the ballot for November to thwart Bhutto's political ambitions; she is due to give birth to her first child in December. In any event, a return to the tumultuous party politics of her father's day is for the moment proscribed by Zia's kill on party endorsements for candidates. Bhutto's party is petitioning the Supreme Court to overturn the prohibition.

In the West, meanwhile, there is concern that Zia's death may mean that Pakistan will retreat from its vigorous support of the Afghan rebels. Zia had personally supervised the CIA-financed and Pakistani-run operations that gave sanctuary, training and arms to Afghan resistance fighters. Though many Pakistanis opposed aiding the rebels, Pentagon officials are convinced that General Baig and his senior military staff know where their interests lie. "The geopolitical realities remain even if Zia is gone," said a Defense Department official. "Pakistan cannot accept a Soviet-dominated Afghanistan on one border and India on the other." Those who consider Pakistan an ally can only hope that Zia's successor believes as fervently in those realities as Zia did.

Source: TIME Magzine

 

[Cairo334]

I think Musharraf is more like Zia, its supporting U.S like Zia did.

 

[tahirkhely]

i heard all these stories and know only one thing that C130 was killed with a SAM. villagers were saying that the plane first went up, then down, then up and then gounded.
Yea he was a brave man. took on the world super power in an overt manner. Enemy is within.

 

[Bull]

Yea he was a brave man. took on the world super power in an overt manner. .

Zia had supported the US,right?

Enemy is within.

that shud be considered as a disturbing comment.Wud u explain

 

[sword9]

The Indian view is that the Shias of Baltistan carried out the assasination of Zia to avenge the brutal suppression of a revolt in Baltistan in May 1988.

 

[RAPTOR]

The Indian view is that the Shias of Baltistan carried out the assasination of Zia to avenge the brutal suppression of a revolt in Baltistan in May 1988.

Is that what RAW told you?