On August 17, 1988, while the then Pakistani President, General Muhammad Zia ul-Haqq was on a plane with a number of senior military officers and the US ambassador, the plane exploded and scattered the remains of everyone.
For 32 years, American and Pakistani investigators have more than once concluded that the plane crash was an accident that resulted from a technical fault, but the son of the late President Muhammad Ijazul Haq provides a second account of his father's death.
Ijaz al-Haq, who previously held a ministerial post, says there is evidence of explosives that were inside mango boxes on the plane.
He added that nerve gas was also pumped into the plane's cockpit to distort the pilots, "because the conspirators wanted to prepare for all possibilities, so they used nerve gas and explosives and fired an artillery shell from outside as well."
He added that there are parties and figures suspected of involvement in the assassination, including: General Aslam Beg who succeeded his father in the leadership of the army, General Mahmoud Ali Durrani, commander of the armored division then stationed in the city of Multan, and Israeli and Indian intelligence.
Zia ul-Haqq and those with him had gone to a test site in the desert to watch the M1A battle tanks, which the United States was pressuring Pakistan to buy.
Revealed hidden
Ijaz-ul-Haqq writes a book that reveals the concealed and fragile investigations into the assassination of his father, and says that the pilots lost control of the plane before the explosion due to inhaling certain gas in the cockpit.
"Dropping a four-engine plane, such as the C-130, is not an easy task, and the conspirators were operating in many directions," he said.
It is noteworthy that Zia ul-Haq played a major role in the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1989), in coordination with the Afghan Mujahideen and with the support of Washington.
Ijazul Haq expressed his regret that successive Pakistani governments did not have sufficient will to conduct an investigation into the assassination of his father.
He stressed that the Americans were initially inclined to reject the novel of the plane crash as a result of a technical error, according to their protocol, the FBI is tasked with conducting investigations within 72 hours, in the event that any American citizen is killed anywhere in the world.
He added that the FBI looked into the case of the US ambassador's death 11 months later, when all traces of evidence were removed from the ground.
Ijazul Haq said that Pakistani officers who tried to uncover the truth about the assassination, were harassed and transferred.
He added, "The air brigadier general, Zaidi Zaidi, against all odds, took parts of the plane to a laboratory and examined debris and mango carefully."
He continued, "Chemical tests showed the presence of traces of antimony, phosphorous and other chemicals used in explosives, and these tests confirmed the scenario of destruction."
He stressed that successive Pakistani governments have never shown stamina and flogging to conduct further investigations and identify the perpetrators.
And Ijazul Haq added that Zaidi also confirmed the use of nerve gas, which confirms the truth of the talk of the then US ambassador to India John Gunter Dean, about the possibility of using nerve gas to assassinate the Pakistani President and his comrades.
According to information gathered in New Delhi, many countries did not possess the nerve gas that was invented in 1952, which attacks the nervous system and prevents the body from functioning properly.
Ijaz Al-Haq pointed out that Zaidi's account, even though it was part of the report of the judge Shafi al-Rahman, was not published at all.
Military record
Gen. Durrani was accused of forcing the late president to attend the tank test, while he was never interested in attending.
He added that Durrani - according to the Dar Al Jaish record - contacted 16 times to persuade Zia ul-Haqq to fly to Bahawalpur.
He stressed that his father was not enthusiastic about buying these American tanks, and he was interested in acquiring airborne warning and control systems.
He added, "(Zia-ul-Haqq) did not want to take this trip, but he was forced, and the Minister of the Interior at the time warned him that he recognized your fault that there is a threat to his life, and he should not travel."
He added that Akram Awan - an Air Force officer arrested three months before the assassination on charges of espionage - had confessed that he had brought nerve gas with the assistance of the Israeli Intelligence Agency (Mossad) and the Intelligence and Research wing of the Indian Intelligence Agency.
Ijaz al-Haq said that he had received threats because he was continuing to investigate the assassination of his father. He explained that the head of the American intelligence service in Islamabad told him through his brother that he should focus on his political life and stop following up the case.
He concluded that the autopsy of the victims was then stopped, as part of a cover-up of the assassination.