Zia's daughter names dad's killers

A former military leader's daughter, Rubina Salim, has alleged that her father General Ziaul Haq was eliminated by the United States with help from elements within Pakistan, including military personnel.

The mystery surrounding the 1988 plane crash that killed the late military dictator General Zia and 12 others has never been cleared. A report on the C-130 crash, after investigation at the top military levels, remains sealed and no disclosures have been made about the findings.

Now one of Zia's two daughters has added fuel to the fire by breaking the family silence on the issue.

According to a report appearing in the Daily Times‚ filed from Washington, the former president's daughter, married to a Pakistani banker, who has lived in the United States since 1980, claimed that she knew who was behind her father's death in 1988 in an air crash over Bahawalpur.

Asked if she would like to identify the murderers, she said, "Our father's murderers were the very people who came to rule (Pakistan) later."

Asked if she meant twice prime minister Benazir Bhutto, she replied, "Benazir was included and there were several others whom I cannot name one by one."

Pressed as to why she was hesitating to name others when she had named Benazir, she said, "According to my estimate, rather my information, or whatever we have come to know, a large number of military people were involved." When told that one of the persons often named was former Gen. Asad Durrani, she answered, "Yes, that is so, and he was involved and perhaps he knows that too."

When asked why her brother Ijaz-ul Haq, who had vowed to find and identify his father's killers, had failed to do so, she answered that he had his "political difficulties."

She also said that it was right to suspect Gen. Aslam Beg as some people had done initially.