Approved For Release 2000/08/08: CIA-RDP96-00789ROO0401020011-3
         MONDAY, AuGUST 22, 1-988 A23
              U.S. Experts
         J,
         Join Probe
         Of Zia Crash
         By Stuart Auerbach
         Wasbington Post Staff Writer
                        ISL kMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 21
         -A team of American specialists
         today joined the investigation into
         the crash of a military plane that
         killed President Mohammed Zia ul-
         Haq, some of Pakistan's top Army
         officers and the U.S. ambassador
         last week'
                       Embassy officials said the inves-
         tigation will take many weeks and
         has been hampered by conflicting
         accounts from residents near the
         eastern Pakistan town of Bahawal-
         pur, where Zia's C130 crashed and
         burned Wednesday.
                       U.S. officials here have played
         down assertions by the new interim
         Pakistani president, Ghulam Ishaq
         Khan, that the crash was an act Of
         sabotage. [State Department
         sources in Washington said Sunday
         that there are increasing indicationti
         that the crash was caused by acci-
         dent -ather than by a bomb or oti-.1ee
         form of sabotage, Washinqtoa Post
         staff writer Don 01 oerdorfer re-
         ported ~' I
                        'Nere has been widespread spec-
         ulation in the press here that the
         crash was caused by a bomb planted
         aboard theplane, perhaps in crates
         of mangoes' that were reported to
         have been loaded at the last minute
         as a gift to Zia.
                        Pakistani officials invited an Amer-
         ican team of crash specialists, drawn
         together by the U.S. Defense De-
         partment, to assist in the investiga-
         tion. Many of the specialists who
         joined the probe today work for the
         u.s. government, while other,: ar~.
         employed by the Lockheed Corp.,
         which manufactures C130s.
         IAccording to preliminary infor
         mation, embassy officials said it ap-
         peared that the pilot was trying to
         return to the civilian airport at Ba-
         hawalpur when the plane crashed.
                        But reports from witnesses di,-
         fered on whether the plane explod-
         ed in the air or burst into flamc s
         when it hit the ground. Witnesses
         have provided both accounts V)
         Pakistani investigators, U.S. Offi-
         cials said.
                        While Ishaq Khan, a longtime
         Pakistani bureaucrat who as Senate
         chairman was the constitutional
         successor to Zia as president, said
         the Pakistani government
         pected sabotagep he acknowledged
         that it had no proof and declined t")
         speculate on who would hav.~
         wanted to kill Zia.
         Senior Pakistani officials
         with the probe of the crash 5aid iW!7
                  - - , A
         vestigatora-were checkifik_`si~ (111'e"
         ent groups for possible involvement-7
         Tilese sources said a prime suspect
         was the Afghan secret service Khad,
         which opposed Zia's support for Af
         ghan guerrillas fighting the Soviet
         backed Kabul government.
                         The sources said those also un
         der investigation were extremist
         pro-Iranian Shiite Moslems, $up
         porters of five Palestinians sen
         tenced to death in Pakistan for a hi
         jacking, a religious sect Zia had
         moved against . and nationalist
         groups fighting the Army in Sind
         province. investigators have also
         riot ruled out the possible involve
         ment of disgruntled military offi
         cers, the sources said. re U.S.
         Also killed in the crash we
         ambassador Arnold L. Raphel and
         brigadier general Herbert Wassom,
         the head of the military assistance
         advisory group at the U.S. Embas-
         sy. [Secretary of State George P.
                         Approved For Release 2000/08/0#tz d' th
         Un1i3t10a,'tNes_'
         ;0 ~sONWAkO0401020011-3
         from Zia's funeral in Islamabad-]