Word: pakistan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...fell. The huge turboprop bounced twice after hitting the sandy plain, then came down a third and final time, exploding on impact. All 30 people aboard were killed, including Zia, 64; Raphel, 45; Brigadier General Herbert Wassom, 49, the chief of the U.S. military mission in Pakistan; and five top Pakistani generals. "It was so hot we could not get close," said a distressed villager who rushed to the scene. "We could not help them...
...crash, which officials immediately labeled suspicious, came at a crucial time for Pakistan and the entire region in which Zia had made himself a major diplomatic player. During his eleven years in power, longer than any other Pakistani head of state, Zia brooked little opposition at home and failed to groom a successor. Last May he summarily dismissed his handpicked civilian government and reestablished one-man rule, thus ensuring a legacy of political disarray. Said Benazir Bhutto, whose Pakistan People's Party has led recent agitation to restore civilian rule: "I do not regret the death...
Abroad, Zia pursued a shrewd foreign policy that aligned him squarely with the West. He used the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the revolution in Iran to make Pakistan the West's bulwark in Southwest Asia. He welcomed some 3 million Afghan refugees who poured over Pakistan's western border to escape the civil war, and enthusiastically helped ship U.S. and Chinese arms to the Afghan rebels. His reward: more than $700 million this year in U.S. aid. Secretary of State George Shultz last week called Zia a "great fighter for freedom." Shultz led the U.S. delegation...
...succeeded by Ghulam Ishaq Khan, 73, who as chairman of the Senate was next in line to the presidency. Regarded widely as a transitional figure, Ishaq Khan declared a state of emergency and appointed an emergency council that the military is expected to dominate. He heartened Pakistan's democratic opposition, however, by announcing that elections would take place in November as planned...
...convinced that its passengers were victims of terrorism. Officials speculated that Zia's plane was either struck by a surface-to-air missile or, more likely, blown up by a bomb planted aboard and detonated by remote control from the ground. Said Riaz Mohammed Khan, a spokesman for the Pakistan government: "Personally, I am 100% sure -- not 99%, 100% -- that it was sabotage...