Ex-US envoy sees Mossad role in Gen Zia’s killing

ISLAMABAD—John Gunther Dean, who was the US ambassador to India in 1988 suspects that the Israeli secret agency Mossad killed General Ziaul Haq. When Mr Dean expressed his views to the State Department at the time and insisted on a thorough investigation of the Israeli-Indian axis, he was accused of mental imbalance and relieved of his duties.
The distinguished diplomat believes that the Israelis wanted to stop Pakistan’s military from making nuclear weapons. They had attacked Iraq’s nuclear facilities at Osirak in 1981 and believed Gen. Zia when he declared in 1987 that Pakistan was a “screwdriver’s turn away from the bomb”. Dean, now 80, has remained silent for nearly 17 years but is now collecting his papers and is ready to share his thoughts, a report said.
He was declared mentally unfit for demanding an investigation into the crash. He lost his medical clearance and security clearance because of his views and was forced to seek retirement in 1988.
After he made the charge following the air crash in which the then US ambassador to Pakistan, Arnie Raphel was also killed, he was sent to Switzerland to “rest” for six weeks and only then allowed to return to New Delhi to pack his bags and quit. He is now opening the case because he wants to clear the charge of “mental imbalance” and ask the questions that have long remained buried about the crash that killed Gen. Zia.
Dean says that when he was ambassador to India, various pro-Israel Congressmen and other US policy makers constantly asked him why he wasn’t cooperating with the Israelis to thwart Pakistan’s nuclear programme. Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Ejaz-ul-Haq while reacting to the report claiming that Israel was involved in Bahawalpur Crash, which killed former President and his father, General Zia-ul-Haq, said that he has personally got more information regarding the incident.
Talking exclusively to reporters after a function here Sunday, the Minister disclosed that in his meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf in August last, on occasion of the death anniversary of his father, the President had assured to conduct an inquiry as to why the Army did not hold the Bahawalpur C-130 crash probe.
“I informed the President that Pak Army never held a probe of the August 17, 1988 Plane Crash”, he said adding that he has mixed views regarding the report and we are looking into these allegations leveled by a former US ambassador to India. When asked that while Government is trying to improve relations with Israel what are his views on this recent report published in the media, Ejaz-ul-Haq made it clear that Pakistan would not recognize Israel until the establishment of Independent State of Palestine.
He said it is premature to comment on the report, “We are trying to collect the information and will make it public after obtaining the facts and figures”, he added. He said that I have more information about the C-130 crash which took place some eighteen years back. Earlier this week US ambassador to India in 1988 John Gunther Dean alleged that Israeli Secret Agency Mossad killed General Zia-ul-Haq according to an article in the latest issue of World Policy Journal by Barbara Crossette, who was the South Asia Bureau Chief of the New York Times from 1988 to 1991.
When John Gunther Dean expressed his views to the State Department at the time and insisted on a thorough investigation of the Israeli-Indian axis, he was accused of mental imbalance and relieved of his duties. Dean was a distinguished diplomat who has garnered more ambassadorships than most envoys. He had strong opinions and years of valuable experience. As an independent thinker, he often had problems being a good “diplomat”. Dean believes that the Israelis wanted to stop Pakistan’s military from making nuclear weapons.

—Agencies