Pakistan President Believes Sabotage Was Cause of Ammunition Dump Blast

President Zia ul-Haq said Thursday that he believes sabotage caused Sunday’s explosion at a Pakistan ammunition dump that killed at least 98 people, but he said an official inquiry would give the final word.

“It could be an accident, but in my own personal assessment, it was a very effective act of sabotage,” he said at a news media lunch at his residence. “It couldn’t be anything else.

“Somebody who is not in line with us,” was responsible, he said. He would not elaborate, citing the investigation into the blast at the ammunition depot between Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

“There is an inquiry. It will tell us (the cause),” he said.

Zia described as speculation reports that the arsenal contained weapons for Pakistan-based Afghan guerrillas fighting the Soviet-backed Kabul government.

“It is a military camp, a Pakistani camp,” he said.

Meanwhile, an Afghan guerrilla arms dump exploded at a refugee camp at Chaman in southwestern Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, killing six people, all of them Afghan refugees, residents of the area reported.