'US sabotaged General Zia-ul-Haq's aircraft'

Former Pakistan Intelligence Bureau chief Brigadier (retd) Imtiaz Ahmad has said that United States was behind the assassination of former Army chief Zia-ul-Haq.

In an interview with a private television channel, Ahmed claimed that US masterminded the Bahawalpur plane crash, in which Haq was killed, in collaboration with 'internal powers of Pakistan'.

'Former army chief Aslam Beg also says that Zia's plane crash was not an accident, but sabotage,' Ahmad said.

Meanwhile, Haq's son, Ejaz-ul-Haq asked the authorities to conduct a criminal investigation of the plane crash in which his father died.

Ejaz-ul-Haq claimed that former pilot Akram Awan, who is in prison in connection with the Kahuta conspiracy case, had told an enquiry commission that Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had provided material to destroy the aircraft in which Zia-ul-Haq was flying.

Ejaz-ul-Haq also said that Washington forcefully hindered investigation into the plane crash.

'I cannot point finger towards a person or a country over murder of General Zia-ul-Haq but US did not send FBI team to Pakistan for probe into plane crash,' The News quoted Haq, as saying.

Zia died along with several of his top generals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Raphel, in an aircraft crash near Bahawalpur (Punjab) on August 17 1988. The circumstances of the crash are still unclear.