Original subtitles

August 17, 1988, Bahawalpur, Pakistan.

A C -130 Hercules equipped as a VIP transport takes off from a military

A few minutes later, the aircraft is seen four points up and down.

Its engines seem to be running okay.

Suddenly, it plunges into the desert. There are no survivors.

The leader of a country at the hub of crucial superpower confrontations is

He has been assassinated in the most mysterious circumstances.

August 17, 1988, Bahawalpur, Pakistan.

The fireball after the crash wipes out all 31 people on board the C -130 VIP

transport. Among them are some of the most important and powerful in Pakistan.

The nation's president, General Zia -ul -Haq.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of the Army General

and eight other top generals.

plus the U .S. ambassador to Pakistan and the head of the U .S. military

mission.

Because there are both Pakistani and U .S. fatalities, both Pakistani and U .S.

air crash investigators are called in.

Just before their report is published, rumors appear in the U .S. press that

crash had been caused by a mechanical failure.

But when the report does appear, It's clear that both the US and Pakistani

investigators rejected this idea and believe that some sort of sabotage is

responsible.

Despite this, the story of a mechanical malfunction continues to be the one

emphasized by both governments.

No further investigations are conducted, and the whole matter is allowed to

drop. Why?

There had been several earlier attempts to kill Pakistan's president, and many

powerful and ruthless people would be glad to see him dead and happy to help

on his way.

Was this an assassination with too many suspects?

A case where it would have been too embarrassing to pin the blame on any one

party in the complex geopolitical game which was swirling around Pakistan.

the target of what was almost certainly an assassination, was born in 1924 at

Jalandhar, in the northwest of what was then British India.

He was commissioned into a cavalry regiment of the Indian Army in 1943 and

fought in Burma during the successful campaign to defeat the Japanese.

When British India is partitioned into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan in 1947,

Zia joins the Pakistan Army as a major.

He's recognized as an able but not brilliant officer, but nevertheless

steadily.

By 1967 -70, he is in charge of a Pakistani training mission to Jordan,

which time he sees action against the Black September terrorists.

April 1st, 1976, Islamabad.

Zia's big break comes when Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto appoints

of the Army Staff over the heads of several more senior generals.

Bhutto chooses Zia as a non -political figure who will be no threat in an

increasingly turbulent political arena.

But he realizes how wrong he was just over a year later.

July the 5th, 1977, Islamabad.

Zia leads a coup against Bhutto's government and declares martial law.

For the second time in less than 30 years of independence, the democratic

government has been overthrown by the military in Pakistan.

Zia has reached the top of a very slippery pole.

Already he has enemies, and soon he will have many more.

The country which Zia now rules had been founded as a Muslim state in 1947, when

Muhammad Ali Jinnah refused to accept a unified India.

It has eastern and western provinces, separated by more than a thousand miles

northern India.

From the moment that the partition of British India is decided, religious and

ethnic tensions erupt.

Huge population shifts begin as Muslims and Hindus living on the wrong sides of

the new frontiers try to reach their new motherland.

Intimidation and massacres kill millions.

Partition has been so rushed that many border disputes remain.

The worst is over who should control Kashmir.

Its population is mainly Muslim, but it has a Hindu ruler.

At the last moment, it is given to India.

Within a few months of independence, the two new nations are at war.

It ends with Pakistan controlling about one -third of Kashmir and giving help to

separatists in the Indian -controlled areas.

A running sore has developed, which will poison relations between them for more

than half a century.

From the outset, democracy is never secure in Pakistan, unlike India, which

prides itself on being the world's largest.

By 1956, political chaos has become so great that the head of the army, General

Ayub Khan, leads a coup and declares himself president.

In 1965, India and Pakistan go to war again over Kashmir.

It ends in stalemate, with the partition line virtually unchanged.

The western province of Pakistan tries to secede and declare independence of

state of Bangladesh.

Pakistan's military government sends in the army, which tries to suppress the

independence movement with great brutality.

Inevitably, India sees an opportunity to weaken its old enemy and intervenes

militarily to achieve independence for Bangladesh.

Popular unrest in the remainder of Pakistan after this defeat forces the

cede power a year later to a democratically elected government led by

Ali Bhutto.

In 1972, spurred on by rumours that India has begun a nuclear research

programme, Bhutto authorises Pakistan scientists to begin their own.

But while this new source of tension between the two countries is building

Economic mismanagement and political infighting are reducing Pakistan to

Mindful that Pakistan's armed forces have already staged one coup, Bhutto

attempts to guard against a repeat performance by selecting a relatively

and apparently non -political general as his chief of staff.

Zia -ul -Haq is promoted over the heads of several more senior officers.

This decision turns out to be fatal for Bhutto.

July the 5th, 1977, Islamabad.

Zia mounts his coup, ominously codenamed Fair Play, and makes himself president

of Pakistan.

Within a year, Bhutto is arrested on trumped -up charges of murdering a

political opponent, and sentenced to death.

Despite widespread international protest and pleas for mercy, Zia confirmed the

sentence.

April the 4th, 1979, Islamabad.

At dawn, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is hanged. Members of his family vow to avenge him.

Zia has made himself some dangerous enemy.

And with him, he goes on to make others.

At home, Zia introduces strict Islamic laws.

Large numbers of moderate Muslims and politicians are opposed to this

fundamentally.

He also secretly speeds up Pakistan's nuclear research program under Dr. Abdul

Qadir Khan and adds to the tension with India by continuing to support the

Kashmiri separatists operating in the Indian control zone.

and then by sending help to Sikh separatists, stirring up trouble in

northwestern India.

Matters become immeasurably worse in October 1984, when these Sikh

are responsible for the murder of Indira Gandhi, India's prime minister.

Her country and its new leader, her son Rajiv, are outraged.

Another potential enemy is added to the list of those who might prefer to see

Zia disposed of.

December 25, 1979, Afghanistan.

The Soviet Union invades Pakistan's nation.

Zia's position on the world stage is transformed.

Zia immediately announces that he will help the Afghan opposition, the regional

warlords who begin attacking Soviet communications within days, and make

parts of the country a no -go area for the Red Army.

The Soviet leadership is added to the list of those who might want Zia dead.

His decision transforms Pakistan's relationship with the United States,

had hitherto been cool about Pakistan's nuclear ambitions.

Now, Pakistan's position on a new front line of the Cold War makes the Americans

swiftly become much more friendly.

The country soon becomes a conduit for U .S. arms going to the various

Mujahideen rebel groups fighting the Soviet army.

But by the mid -1980s, the Soviets are getting on top, with their aggressive

of Hind helicopter gunships and Spetsnaz special forces.

The situation is transformed when the U .S. starts supplying finger -handheld

anti -aircraft missiles.

which soon drive the Soviet helicopters from the sky and remove one of the Red

Army's major advantages.

The cost of military involvement in Afghanistan is a major factor in

accelerating the collapse of the Soviet Union.

May 1988, Moscow.

The new Soviet government of Mikhail Gorbachev announces that a pullout from

Afghanistan will begin.

But Zia does not let up his support of certain Mujahideen leaders to ensure

an Afghan government friendly to Pakistan will emerge.

At the same time, increasing tensions between factions within Zia's ruling

have led him to promise democratic elections within 90 days.

Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of the executed Prime Minister, returns to

and announces that she will be taking power.

It is at this delicate political time that Zia is asked to go to watch a

demonstration of the new U .S. main battle tank, the M1 Abrams, at the

ground near Bahawalpur.

Zia is busy, but reluctantly agrees to go because the whole of his Army High

Command will be there, and he does not wish to be seen as flighting them.

August 17, 1988, Bahawalpur.

The demonstration of the Abrams tank is a fiasco.

In a firing test, it misses its target ten times out of ten and then breaks

down.

Bahawalpur Air Base, early afternoon.

Zia returns by helicopter and then boards his personal transport, a

adapted Lockheed Hercules C -130, codenamed Pack 1.

Feated beside him is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former head

of the Inter -Service Intelligence Agency, Pakistan's equivalent of the US

Also on board are the Chief of the Pakistani Army General Staff and eight

top generals.

Plus the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold L. Raphael.

And General Herbert M. Wasson.

the head of the U .S. military aid mission to the country.

The Hercules has an experienced four -man flight crew. The pilot, Wing

Mahdoud Hassan, was personally selected by Zia. The rest of the crew also have

top security clearance.

Baha 'u'llah air bits.

At 3 .46 in the afternoon, the Hercules takes off.

A few moments later, the control tower asks for its position.

It is standard procedure.

The pilot responds, Pack 1, stand by.

Then there is silence.

The control tower starts calling desperately.

About two minutes later, villagers working in nearby fields see the

lurching up and down in the sky as if on an invisible roller coaster.

After its third lurch, it heads deeply downwards and crashes straight into the

desert with its engine still running normal.

It is buried deep in the earth.

Then it explodes in a ball of flesh.

The only survivor of the Pakistan army's top brass, is the deputy chief of

staff. He had taken off immediately after the Hercules in an executive jet

follow it back to Islamabad.

Seeing what has happened, and sure that there can be no survivors in the flaming

wreckage, General Begg flies straight back to the capital.

There, he imposes martial law, but announces that the planned election will

still go ahead.

Because there are both U .S. and Pakistani fatalities, a joint team of

-U .S. air crash investigators is called in.

Normally, America's FBI would expect to be involved, but this time it is

forbidden to take part.

There is only a cursory examination of the badly burned bodies of the pilots

found in the wreckage before they are cremated.

October 14, 1988, Washington.

The U .S. State Department leaks a story to the New York Times headlined,

Malfunctions Seen as Cause of Zia Crash.

But when the report comes out three days later, the Times' story is now

headlined, Pakistan Points to Sabotage in Zia Crash.

Immediately after this, the U .S. government issues a briefing.

which suggests that there has been a difference of opinion between the U .S.

investigators, who believe that a mechanical failure has been the cause of

crash, and the Pakistanis, who are certain that it is sabotage.

In reality, when the lead U .S. investigator later gives evidence to a

congressional subcommittee, he states that no evidence of a mechanical failure

had been found.

Despite US misinformation and the hushing up of the inquiry, both the

and US investigators end by being sure it is neither a mechanical malfunction

nor a major explosion on board, nor a missile hit.

This only leaves sabotage. But if so, who did it? And why was it never

investigated?

August 17th, 1988, Bahawalpur.

Pak 1 is still in one piece, with the engine still running when it hits the

ground. It has two separate backup control systems, and there is no sign

either has malfunctioned.

But the paw -poising up and down in the final steep dive seen by witnesses are

typical of a C -130 left to fly itself without autopilot.

Both sets of investigators finally come to the conclusion that the crew has

somehow been incapacitated and the plane left to fly itself.

But there is no black box flight recorder of their final conversations or

actions.

Nevertheless, there is the long silence after the pilot says, pack one, stand

by, before the aircraft crashes and explodes.

There is no attempt to send a mayday message.

The aircraft's radio is apparently working.

When ground recordings are examined, a very faint voice, probably that of Zia's

military secretary, Brigadier Najib Ahmed, can be heard calling the pilot's

name, Mashdoud, Mashdoud.

It sounds as if he has opened the cockpit door to find out why the

flying erratically.

It begins to look as if the crew have somehow been incapacitated very suddenly

shortly after take -off.

But how could this have been done?

When the wreckage is examined by the U .S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and

Tobacco in Washington, minute traces of PNET, a secondary explosive sometimes

used for detonators, are found.

The investigators begin to speculate that a low -level detonator may have

used to burst a flask of incapacitating gas about the size of a drink can.

A repair crew has worked on the C -130 at Bahawalpur Air Base, and it would

been simple to put such a device on board.

Suitable nerve gases exist.

The US has developed one, named VX, at the Army's Chemical Warfare Center at

Aberdeen, Maryland.

And Soviet forces are known to have used one against Mujahideen guerrillas

during clearance operations in Afghanistan.

But none of these questions are allowed to disrupt the official story of a

mechanical failure.

The whole matter is soon hushed up with no further investigation.

Soon people are speculating that Zia's death has come at such a delicate time

the great game being played out in Afghanistan that to accuse any one

suspect or country of carrying out an assassination would have been

destabilizing. It was better to let matters lie.

rather than stir up controversy.

The Soviets might well have wanted Zia dead in revenge for Pakistan's arming of

the Mujahideen.

The Soviets had just halted the withdrawal of their forces as a protest

continuing attacks prompted by Pakistan.

The pull -out soon resumed, but any accusation of Soviet responsibility for

Zia's murder might well have delayed it or scuppered it completely.

The Soviets certainly had the means to carry out such an operation.

They trained the Afghan Secret Service, which had already killed or wounded over

1 ,400 people in Pakistan.

The Soviets also had stockpiles of the necessary nerve gas and had shown that

they would have no inhibitions about using it.

But the United States was convinced that the Soviets would not have risked the

detente by killing the U .S. ambassador.

The Indian government, led by Rajiv Gandhi, held Zia responsible for arming

separatists. Some of them had recently killed Rajiv's mother, Indira.

There was also the ongoing tension in Kashmir, where Zia was arming the

militants.

But to accuse India of his assassination would destabilize an already tense

situation and hardly help to maintain peace in the region.

An even more virulent enemy of Zia is Mir Murtaza Bhutto, the son of the

executed Zulfikar and brother of the leading opposition politician, Benazir

Bhutto. He had the guerrilla group dedicated to overthrowing Zia.

This has already tried to shoot down Pak -1 on one occasion.

But to accuse Bhutto's family of Zia's murder would jeopardize Pakistan's

projected elections and the return to a very fragile democracy.

It was known that Zia had been planning to make changes amongst the army high

command. Both he and the army chief of staff had been reluctant to go to the

tank trial.

They had only been persuaded by army colleagues.

Could some disgruntled generals have decided to save their careers by getting

rid of him?

It was noted that the deputy chief of staff had travelled on a separate plane,

but after his assassination, he made no attempt to seize power and allowed the

democratic election to go ahead.

This brought Benazir Bhutto to power and ended army control, at least

temporarily.

Apart from these immediate suspects, Fingers were pointed at several other

directly involved parties who might have wanted Zia dead.

Ayatollah Khomeini's Shiite Muslim Iran, after eight years of a seemingly

endless war with Saddam Hussein's Sunni -dominated Iraq, was becoming

increasingly suspicious of the growing power of Sunni Pakistan under Zia on its

other borders.

With the Soviets pulling out, The Afghan warlords were jockeying for power and

influence. One in particular, Boubadine Hekmatyar, had fallen out seriously with

Zia.

Inevitably, there was a suggestion that now that the Soviets were withdrawing,

the US might want Zia out of power.

There was a danger that he was now arming the Taliban extremists among the

rebels who were known to be profoundly anti -American.

Some years later, The then U .S. ambassador to India, John Gunter Dean,

suggested that Israel's secret service, Mossad, might have been involved.

As its attack on the Iraqi nuclear facility at Osirak had shown, Israel had

always been paranoid about the possibility that one of its Arab enemies

acquire an atomic weapon.

It was known to be concerned that Zia was developing a Muslim bomb and that

might be supplied to an Arab opponent.

When he expressed his concerns to the State Department, Dean was dismissed.

Like an old -fashioned whodunit, almost everyone involved in the region had

reasons to want Zia dead, and several had the means to do it and make it look

like an accident.

But no further investigations into the assassination of Zia have ever been

carried out.

No detective has ever gathered all the suspects together in the drawing room

then unmasked the real villain.

probably because the truth would have been too embarrassing, and almost any

solution would have caused even more problems in a volatile region.

Sadly, the death of Zia -ul -Haq and the restraint over investigating whoever

carried it out still has not paid off in a lasting peace in the region.