52-Years back Polish Deputy Foreign Minister was killed at Karachi Airport

Polish delegation was headed by President Marshal Marian Spychalski. The assassin, who shouted anti-socialism slogans, intended to kill entire delegation members.

Sindh Courier Monitoring Desk

Karachi

Fifty-two years ago on this day (November 1, 1970), the Polish deputy foreign minister Zygfryd Wolniak was killed at Karachi airport during welcome ceremonies by a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) employee and anti-communist Islamic fundamentalist named Mohammed Feroze Abdullah, who had planned to kill the entire delegation, but the Polish President Marshal Marian Spychalski in particular, who headed the delegation.

Driving a PIA cargo lorry at high speed, he mowed down the delegation and narrowly missed his intended target. The other three victims were Pakistanis – the deputy director of the intelligence bureau, Chaudhri Mohammed Nazir, and two government photographers. The assassin’s stated motivation to the interrogators was his desire to kill socialists, believing that socialists and socialism were against Islam and Muslims.

Also injured in the incident were the Polish Ambassador to Pakistan, Alojzy Bartoszek, and the Polish Consul General in Karachi, W. Duda. Some children of Polish families residing in Karachi who had gone to the airport to greet their President, also sustained injuries.

There were unconfirmed reports that the driver of the truck shouted slogans when he was arrested.

The mishap occurred shortly after Marshal Spychalski’s arrival here from Islamabad, Pakistan’s new capital, 1,000 miles to the northeast, for the final stop in a five‐day state visit to Pakistan.

As President Spychalski was being introduced to members of the welcoming party, consisting of leading citizens of Karachi and members of the diplomatic corps here, a catering van belonging to Pakistan International Airlines, which had been behind the President’s plane, suddenly made a turn and sped toward the reception line.

Marshal Spychalski, who was only a few feet away from where the vehicle plunged into the group, was unhurt. Mr. Wolniak died on the spot.

The driver of the van was seized and arrested.

President Spychalski’s visit was cut short as a result of the incident and he departed for Warsaw within four hours, with Mr. Wolniak’s body aboard his plane.

Also accompanying the body of the Polish official on the trip back to Warsaw were Mahmoud Haroon, a member of the Pakistani Cabinet, and Pakistan’s chief of protocol.

The Pakistani President, Gen. Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan, was immediately informed of the tragedy by telephone at the presidential palace in Rawalpindi, the interim capital, a few miles from Islamabad. General Yahya then expressed his deep regret and that of his Government in a telephone conversation with Polish President Spychalski.

Mr. Haroon, who was Pakistan’s Minister of Agriculture and Works, represented President Yahya at Mr. Wolniak’s funeral.

The Governor of the Province of Sindh, Lieut. Gen. Rakhman Gul, ordered an inquiry into the incident. Karachi is the capital of Sindh, one of the four provinces that form West Pakistan.

This terrorism incident occurred on the eve of Pakistan’s first general elections scheduled in December 1970 in which right-wing Islamic parties such as the Jamaat-e-Islami were employing highly inflammable rhetoric against socialists as part of their election campaigns. Feroze was sentenced to death by a special military court on May 10, 1971, but permitted to appeal for clemency.

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Source: Wikipedia, New York Times