1
It was little past 3 pm on Aug 17, 1988. The plane, a Cessna, had completed its routine check around Bahawalpur. The pilot, Wing Commander Mashhood Hassan arrived along with his co-pilot, navigator and engineer for a pre-flight check. Half-an-hour later Gen Zia arrived with his guests, after witnessing the operation of the new American battle tank, Abrams M-1/A-1, accompanied by some top generals of Pakistan, the US ambassador Arnold Raphel and Brigadier Gen Herbert Wassom, head of the US military aid mission to Pakistan. Two crates of mangoes had been loaded just moments before the flight took off. Before boarding the plane on his way back to Islamabad, the general said goodbye to the vice chief of army staff Gen Aslam Baig and others.
Gen Baig had declined Gen Zia’s invitation to accompany him as he had some work to attend to in Lahore. At 3.46 pm, with its normal roaring sound, the C-130 Hercules, nicknamed Pak-1, took off. As Pak-1 took off for the return journey, Gen Aslam Baig watched it gain altitude. A couple of minutes later the Cessna pilot informed Gen Baig that Pak-I was tumbling and after some erratic movement near the Sutlej, the plane began to descend. No distress call was heard from the pilot as communication came to a halt. In no time, the plane crashed and a fireball rose bringing an end to the lives of all those travelling in the plane.
Gen Zia’s tragic death in a plane crash changed the course of events
Gen Khalid Mahmud in his work Working with Zia records that the take-off was perfectly smooth. He notes:
“… For two minutes and 30 seconds, the aircraft kept gaining height and the pilot remained in contact with the Bahawalpur control tower. Then the disaster happened. This was a surprising development because the aircraft was flown by a highly experienced cockpit crew. The sturdy turbo-prop, reputed for its reliability and safety record, remained airborne for another two minutes. Those agonising 120 seconds took Zia and others travelling with him to their rendezvous with death. Eyewitnesses on the ground saw the erratic behaviour of the aircraft, bouncing up and down before it hit the ground violently, nose down. So tremendous was the velocity that the engines ploughed several feet into the ground. The disintegrated aircraft carrying 20,000 pounds of fuel burnt fiercely for hours and the burning pieces of wreckage were widely spread. Thirty-one persons on board also burnt to death. Barring a few badly charred mutilated corpses, the rest were cut to small pieces of bones and flesh, beyond recognition. The human remains retrieved after an extensive search operation posed considerable identification issues.”
To add to the tragedy, except for the airport control tower, there were no means to inform the relevant quarters. Gen Aslam Baig had seen the president’s plane take off but a minute later the pilot informed him that the control tower had lost contact with the president’s plane and the plane had gone down. On learning this Gen Baig asked that his plane be diverted to Islamabad; the military officers travelling with him decided to go to the capital as the situation made it imperative for Baig to be present there.
The loss of communication with the C-130 created fears. Defence minister Mahmood A. Haroon was in Karachi and while leaving for Islamabad a few minutes past 4.00 pm, he sent a message regarding the president’s plane to the Dawn newsroom. In the absence of any authentic information, the country was in the grip of all kinds of speculation. People called up newspaper offices eager to find out about the situation.
After the disaster, there was no word from any government quarter for several hours till a decision was taken about how to tackle the situation. Security measures had been tightened in preparation for any untoward situation while communication was strictly guarded. Amid such a situation rumours of promulgating martial law were getting stronger. However, in a few hours, a system was agreed upon according to which senate chairman Ghulam Ishaq Khan was to go on air and address the nation, break the news of the tragedy and announce a new system to run the affairs of the government. A state of emergency was declared with special security arrangements made in Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore.
With confirmation of the tragic happening, speculation arose as to the possible cause of the disaster. People knew that Gen Zia took extraordinary caution in travel as well as other activities. He would take several senior army generals along with him, and never disclose which plane he would use. Even for the daily commute between his office and residence he would not disclose what route he would take. For the Bahawalpur visit, too, two C-130 planes were available at the Chaklala air base but the staff did not know which plane the general would use. Just a little before his departure he chose Pak-I while the other, Pak-II, was to follow as a cover-up plane. After getting the nod, the ground staff quickly fixed the 21-foot-long VIP passenger capsule and installed it. When the Pak-I took off from the Chaklala air base, the second plane Pak-II followed it and after Pak-I landed at the Bahawalpur air base, the second plane flew to Sargodha — half-an-hour’s flight from Bahawalpur as there was no space for the second plane at the Bahawalpur airstrip.
The eight-seater Cessna used by Gen Aslam Baig had flown to Bahawalpur earlier as he had to receive Gen Zia and other dignitaries. The jet plane of the US officials — ambassador Arnold Raphel and Brigadier Gen Herbert Wassom, the head of the US military aid mission to Pakistan — was parked at the Multan air base as Gen Zia had requested them to accompany him in his C-130.
There was no immediate reaction from politicians. The tragedy shocked the world and it was an occurrence that was bound to change the course of history. A team of investigators was sent to the crash site, while the US offered to send a forensic team and aviation experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help the Pakistan probe team. As the official machinery began making arrangements for the funeral, people waited for some news regarding the cause of the disaster.
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, April 3rd, 2016
