A pproved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000401020011-3 Monpay, AuGusT 22, 1988 A23 U.S. Experts Join Probe Of Zia Crash By Stuart Auerbach Washington Post Staff Writer ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 21 —A team of American specialists today joined the investigation into the crash of a military plane that killed President Mohammed Zia ul- Haq, some of Pakistan’s top Army officers and the U.S. ambassador ast week. _ Embassy officials said the inves- tigation will take many weeks and has been hampered by conflicting accounts from residents near the eastern Pakistan town of Bahawal- pur, where Zia’s C130 crashed and burned Wednesday. fone ata ete tae mn assertions by the new interim Pakistani president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, that the crash was an act of sabotage. [State Department g indications that the crash was caused by acci- dent <ather than by a bomb or other form of sabotage, Washincgiun Post staff. writer Don O' yerdorfer re- norted. ‘Tnere has been widespread spec- ulation in the press here that the crash was caused by a bomb planted aboard the plane, perhaps in crates of mangoes that were reported to have been loaded at the last minute as a gift to Zia. Pakistani officials invited an Amer- ican team of crash specialists, drawn together by the U.S. Defense De- partment, to assist in the investiga- tion. Many of the specialists who joined the probe today work for the U.S. government, while others arg, employed by the Lockheed Corp., which manufactures C130s. "According to preliminary infor- mation, embassy officials said it ap- peared that the pilot was trying to return to the civilian airport at Ba- hawalpur when the plane crashed. But reports from witnesses dit fered on whether the plane explod- ed in the air or burst into flames when it hit the ground. Witnesses have provided both accounts to Pakistani investigators, US. offi- cials said. While Ishaq Khan, a longtime Pakistani bureaucrat who as Senate chairman was the constitutional successor to Zia as president, said the Pakistani government sus ~~~ pected sabotage, he acknowledged that it had no proof and declined to speculate on who would hav? wanted to kill Zia. Senior Pakistani officials familict: with the probe of the crash gaid int vestigators were checking six Gites, ent groups for possible involvement.’ These sources said a prime suspect was the Afghan secret gervice Khad, which opposed Zia’s support for Af- ghan guerrillas fighting the Soviet- backed Kabul government. The sources said those also un- der investigation were extremist pro-[ranian Shiite Moslems, stp- porters of five Palestinians sen- tenced to death in Pakistan for a hi- jacking, a religious sect Zia had moved against . and nationalist groups fighting the Army in Sind province. Investigators have also not ruled out the possible involve- ment of disgruntled military offi- cers, the sources said. Also killed in the crash were U.S. ambassador Arnold L. Raphel and brigadier general Herbert Wassom, the head of the military assistance advisory group at the Ue. Embay sy. (Secretary of tate George ©. Approved For Release 2000/0808" eta he Mitiee ine United States otis Teta $9R000401020011-3 from Zia’s funeral in Islamabad.}