MCWETHY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000301430006-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: October 31, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/01/06: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000301430006-3
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
31 'October 1984
MCWETHY: The U.S. and the Soviet Union are major players
on the Indian subcontinent, with each in a position to
lose ground in the wake of today's assassination. Since
the early 1970s, Indira Gandhi had been moving India
toward a. closer relationship with the Soviet Union, buying
weapons from the Russians, refusing to criticize the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The U.S., meanwhile, has
been arming India's neighbor and bitter enemy, Pakistan.
In the last two months, intelligence reports have
indicated growing tension on the Indo-Pakistan border.
Despite such tensions, today from Pakistan came words of
praise for India's fallen leader. ZIA-UI-HAQ (president
of Pakistan): She was a leader of tremendous. ability who-
served her people in the best of the possible manners.
MCWETHY: Words of praise from Pakistan, but in some
quarters, Indian officials are hinting that Pakistan may
have been indirectly involved in the Gandhi assassination
by long-term support of Sikh terrorists. It's a charge
that Pakistan flatly denies, the kind of inflammatory
accusation that U.S. officials fear could make tension in
the region much worse. John McWethy, ABC News, the State
Department. <
Approved For Release 2010/01/06: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000301430006-3