Soviets Note Death Without Comment
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MOSCOW — Soviet news media on Wednesday speedily and without comment reported the death of Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq, accused by Moscow of conducting terrorism by aiding Afghan rebels.
Within minutes of the first Western reports that Gen. Zia and 36 others had been killed in a plane explosion and crash, the official news agency Tass carried the announcement.
Tass normally reports important international news hours after the first Western accounts appear.
Moscow Radio picked up the report, and it was broadcast as the seventh item on the main evening television news after domestic items, including a harvest report.
The Soviet Union had waged an increasingly strident campaign against Zia in recent months, accusing his government of trying to sabotage the Geneva accords on Afghanistan since Moscow began withdrawing its troops in mid-May.
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