Pakistan Crash No Accident, Official Says

A preliminary Pakistani investigation has found that mechanical failure on the airplane “could not have caused the explosion” that killed President Zia ul-Haq, U.S. Ambassador Arnold L. Raphel, a senior U.S. military attache and 10 of Zia’s senior generals, the chief of the Pakistani air force said Thursday.

Air Chief Marshal Hakimullah Khan said that Pakistan “very strongly suspects foul play,” possibly a bomb or missile, was responsible for Wednesday’s midair explosion. He spoke briefly to reporters as coffins containing the bodies of the dead arrived in the capital. The crash occurred moments after Zia’s C-130 transport plane took off from the southern desert town of Bahawalpur.

“We have tried to ask our most experienced C-130 pilots as to what catastrophic failure possibly could take place to make this plane go out of control,” Hakimullah Khan said. “They all said the same thing. They could think of nothing.”

Asked whether he believed that a bomb or missile was responsible, he replied, “It could not be anything else.”

However, the air marshal refused to speculate on who might be responsible for the suspected sabotage.

In Washington, a senior U.S. official said Thursday, “There is no confirmation of any foul play, but we are not taking anything for granted.”

A U.S. Air Force investigating team was dispatched to the crash site about 60 miles from the Indian border and is expected to arrive today. The C-130 was not equipped with the automatic recording device required on civilian airliners.

As Hakimullah Khan declared that “we want to make all efforts to find out the truth,” a series of Pakistani air force planes arrived on the tarmac at the Islamabad airport, carrying the remains of Raphel, Army Brig. Gen. Herbert M. Wassom, the senior U.S. defense attache here, and 23 of the 28 Pakistani military officers killed in the crash.

Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, who became army chief of staff upon Zia’s death, confirmed during the arrival ceremony that the final death toll from the disaster was 30, 17 passengers and 13 crew members. Initial reports indicated that 37 people had been aboard the plane.

A Pakistani honor guard saluted as two coffins containing the bodies of Raphel and Wassom were slowly carried off one of the transport planes by Pakistani military personnel.

Both coffins were draped with the American flag and topped with large wreaths. They were followed by contingents of two soldiers each from the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marines.

Pakistan’s new president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, solemnly approached Raphel’s widow, Nancy Ely-Raphel, with his hand extended. In a brief conversation, the president expressed his deep regrets, and Ely-Raphel, a State Department official, thanked him and managed a smile.

Imam Recites Prayers

The two American coffins were followed by nine pine boxes draped with the green-and-white Pakistani flag. Each, containing the body of a Pakistani general, was laid on a flatbed truck and driven to the Pakistani air force headquarters, where a Muslim imam recited a prayer for the dead.

Several hours later, after night fell, the final C-130 containing Zia’s coffin arrived from Bahawalpur. Tight security barred the public from the tarmac, but hundreds of Pakistani civilian and military personnel still mobbed the casket, which was wrapped tightly in the Pakistani flag and draped with garlands of white flowers.

Several in the crowd sobbed loudly as the new president led the coffin past an official honor guard from all three Pakistani military services, which stood rigidly at attention until the casket was placed in a waiting air force ambulance.

Funeral on Saturday

The coffin then was taken to a military hospital, which officials said will remain off limits to the public until Zia’s funeral, now scheduled for Saturday afternoon. The streets of the capital were calm and nearly deserted as a motorcycle escort sped Zia’s body and the entourage of civilian and military leaders to the hospital.

With all businesses closed, Islamabad and all other major Pakistani cities remained quiet. There were no reports of violence, although police reported that rockets were fired at a Karachi oil refinery in an incident they said apparently was unrelated to Wednesday’s midair explosion.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto praised Ishaq Khan for behaving with restraint in the aftermath of Zia’s death.

“The constitution has been followed,” said Bhutto, who added that her Pakistani Peoples Party is confident of winning the Nov. 16 elections here. “The government could have imposed martial law, but this wasn’t done.”

Resolution on Zia

But earlier, Bhutto’s party passed a sharply worded resolution condemning Zia “as the man who . . . after 11 years of repressive rule left behind nothing but debts and mortgages, hunger and unemployment, exploitation and discrimination, drugs and corruption.”

In India’s border state of Jammu and Kashmir, security forces killed four people and wounded about 100 when they opened fire on pro-Pakistani Muslim crowds who defied a curfew imposed after Zia’s death and rampaged through three cities, the United News of India reported.

Indian security forces also were deployed in other areas near the 970-mile border with Pakistan to prevent violence, news reports said.

The Indian government declared three days of mourning, and at a special meeting in New Delhi, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his Cabinet observed a moment of silence in memory of Zia.

Long History of Hostility

India, which is mainly Hindu, and Pakistan, which is Muslim, have a long history of hostility and have fought three wars since each gained independence from Britain 41 years ago.

Many Pakistani analysts and members of the public speculated Thursday that India was somehow responsible for the air disaster.

As rumors flew around Islamabad’s tea stalls, Maleeha Lodhi, editor of the prestigious daily national newspaper The Muslim, said, “One of the most commonly held theories is that the Indians have always believed we were behind (Prime Minister) Indira Gandhi’s assassination, so this sabotage was their revenge.”

Supported Sikh Campaign

Gandhi, the mother of the current prime minister, was assassinated in October, 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards, at a time when India openly charged that Zia and the Pakistani military were supporting the bloody Sikh separatist campaign in the north Indian state of Punjab.

“What you are hearing around town now is, ‘This is Rajiv Gandhi’s way of getting back at us,’ ” Lodhi said. “Of course, no one in the government or military is suggesting this openly, but it is in the back of a lot of people’s minds.”

Despite such suspicions, there has not been even a hint of protest or communal unrest in Pakistan in the aftermath of the disaster, a national reaction that has met with praise from many analysts and diplomats.

“In a way, it’s incredible,” said one Western diplomat who asked not to be named. “Everything is peaceful. It seems they (the Pakistani people) are seeing this as a national tragedy, and instead of playing politics, they are settling in and acting responsibly.”

Airport Security Tight

One senior Pakistani military officer said the tight security at the airport Thursday was meant in part to prevent a surge of such passions.

Government radio and television made no advance announcement of the arrival of Zia’s body, and police permitted only official personnel, journalists and passengers with air tickets to enter the airport grounds during the arrival ceremony.

As a result, the military ceremony honoring those killed in the crash was made all the more eerie by the silence and the darkness that engulfed the tarmac Thursday night.

The quiet was broken only by the occasional sobs of a government minister. And the darkness was brightened only by the television lights that focused on the face of Zia’s youngest son, Dr. Anwar ul-Haq, who stood, flanked by family friends, with reddened eyes and a look of resignation.