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by Eric S. Margolis
September 5, 2025
Zia-ul-Haq was a great leader of Pakistan, a tough tank general, and the man who defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan. He was murdered in August 1988 when the C-130 he was flying in was sabotaged and crashed near Bahawalpur, central Pakistan.
I spent a good deal of time with Zia, the last in his home at Army HQ in Rawalpindi. Gen. Zia had read a newspaper column I wrote about how Pakistan was defeating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He invited me to come to Pakistan and interview him.
I did so at a time when few in the West knew or cared anything about Pakistan or Afghanistan. My father, a New York businessman, was fascinated by Pakistan. I quickly became beguiled by Pakistan and its many peoples.
Zia revealed to me the inner workings of the war in Afghanistan and introduced me to his partner, Gen. Abdul Rahman, then head of Pakistan’s crack intelligence agency, ISI. Gen. Rahman held a major command briefing at ISI HQ for me on how ISI was secretly managing the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan, complete with radio intercepts and field reports. The anti-Soviet Afghan mujahidin were heroic and effective, but key aspects of the war – telecommunications, logistics, weapons planning, munitions and medical services - were provided by Pakistan through the ISI.
Later on, I was invited by China’s military intelligence agency to Beijing to provide an opinion that China should open an arms supply line to the mujahidin. I urged the Chinese to back the Afghans. They did.
Zia’s C-130 Hercules aircraft was sabotaged soon after takeoff. Investigations by the US, Pakistan, China and India went on for years, but with no clear answers. Four decades later the consensus skirts the sabotage conclusion. But the official US position remains an accident, though a senior US diplomat and Brigadier General died in the crash that killed Gens. Zia and Akhtar. To this date, the US has never to my knowledge conducted a thorough investigation of the crash and even thwarted a US Air Force investigation.
There was, of course, speculation that rivals of Zia in Pakistan’s powerful military establishment were involved. This past week Zia’s son, Ijaz, claimed in a new book that two powerful generals of that period were behind the sabotage. They deny culpability.
I have been following this sordid story since 1988, shocked that the US government and media could so callously ignore the murder of a friend and key ally.
I have asked Zia foe Benazir Bhutto.
I asked former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
I asked two heads of ISI intelligence.
I asked former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
Former PM Shaukat Aziz.
None had any useful answer.
The majority of Pakistanis still believe that the US was behind Zia’s murder. He had become too powerful and independent and might interfere with US plans to dominate oil-rich Central Asia. As an American, I prayed this was not true. But after the US so-called ‘war on terror,’ invasion if Iraq and attempt to overthrow Iran, it became harder to believe in US innocence.
The most powerful Afghan leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, told me he was certain the US was behind Zia’s death.
But Russia wanted revenge for its Cold War defeat in Afghanistan and India was always ready to strike out at Pakistan. Many senior Pakistani generals were killed in the C-130 crash. Today, we would call it ‘decapitation.’
Most interestingly, a former veteran US ambassador, John Gunther Dean, claimed that Israel’s Mossad had murdered President Zia to thwart Pakistan sharing its developing nuclear technology. Gunther was fired from the State Department for this heresy and declared mentally unsound. But he may very well have hit the target. The assassination was a faultless operation, using nerve gas hidden in a crate of mangos that incapacitated the air crew, backed by what looks like a decades old cover-up by Washington. Add Zia’s assassination to the attack on the USS Liberty.
I salute Zia’s memory as a gallant soldier, brilliant statesman and courageous warrior.
Copyright. Eric S. Margolis 2025