A Case of Exploding Mangoes is
a comic novel by the Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif based on the plane crash
that killed General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, former president of Pakistan. The
novel is a dark satirical style.
The theme of the novel is an
ambitious fictional attempt to explain the mysterious death of General Zia
ul-Haq. This fanciful piece of fiction is based on
solid historical fact, the death in a 1988 plane crash of the Pakistan dictator
General Zia ul-Haq. Different theories have been put forward over the last 20
years to explain this mysterious event, like Mechanical failure,
human error,
the CIA’s impatience
a blind woman’s curse,
Generals not happy with their pension plans and
the mango season etc. So far, though, no culprits have been collared, no satisfactory explanation provided. Depending on different people’s point of view, the guilty parties could be the CIA, the KGB, Benazir Bhutto, the Afghans or Mossad. Novelists, have its own theory to peddle about the crash, one involving overambitious generals and CIA operatives, plus a wandering crow, several crates of suspicious mangoes and a disgruntled air force cadet. Hanif has seized upon this unsolved mystery and spun a darkly satirical explanation by way of this tale that Zia's plane crash was the mysterious death of Zia-Ul-Haq. According to him, it is a fictitious story behind the real life plane crash which killed General Zia, dictator of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988, about which there are many conspiracy theories. After witnessing a tank parade in Bahawalpur, Zia left the small Punjabi town in the C-130 Hercules aircraft designated 'Pak One'. It is a fictionalized account of the death of the Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq, killed in an air crash along with a bevy of his top generals and the US ambassador, Arnold Raphael in 1988 just as they were beginning to celebrate their victory over the Soviets in the Afghanistan War. The title of the novel is a play on words, referring to both the mystery behind what caused the crash, there are a number of different theories that lay the blame at the feet of a number of different suspects, as well as the popular suspicion that the plane was blown up by a bomb planted in a crate of mangoes that was loaded on the plane in Bahawalpur Knowing anything about the actual history is not necessary to enjoy this novel as Hanif sets the scene very well, but one's appreciation only increases of the way he weaves the various theories surrounding the crash into one narrative. For example, there is a subplot about the blind girl Zainab who is imprisoned for fornication after being raped as Zia did introduce a law which automatically made female rape victims criminals if they could not produce eyewitnesses to testify that they were raped. After a human rights demonstrator breaches his security cordon, Zia orders Zainab to essentially be 'disappeared' into the Pakistani version of Guantanamo Bay. There she curses her tormentor, and according to folklore, crows carry the curse of wronged women to their recipients. One of the theories about the plane crash is that it was the result of mechanical failure after a crow was sucked into one of its engines.
Mohammed Hanif skilfully weaves together a variety of subplots, the main one following an air force cade that gets caught up in an investigation after his roommate goes AWOL. Other POVs include Zia himself, his wife, his long time ally and chief of the ISI, General Akhtar his bodyguard and the suave torturer, Major Kiyani.
All this sounds like dour, heavy going, but Hanif is criticizing and makes fun over all these theories and called Zia-Ul-Haq’s death is mysterious. He provokes fun at a whole bevy of sacred cows, terrorism, fundamentalism, the Pakistani army, the ISI, the CIA, and the Mujahideen. All these theories provide fun for reader as well as show the mystery of how ultimately, Zia met his end.
human error,
the CIA’s impatience
a blind woman’s curse,
Generals not happy with their pension plans and
the mango season etc. So far, though, no culprits have been collared, no satisfactory explanation provided. Depending on different people’s point of view, the guilty parties could be the CIA, the KGB, Benazir Bhutto, the Afghans or Mossad. Novelists, have its own theory to peddle about the crash, one involving overambitious generals and CIA operatives, plus a wandering crow, several crates of suspicious mangoes and a disgruntled air force cadet. Hanif has seized upon this unsolved mystery and spun a darkly satirical explanation by way of this tale that Zia's plane crash was the mysterious death of Zia-Ul-Haq. According to him, it is a fictitious story behind the real life plane crash which killed General Zia, dictator of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988, about which there are many conspiracy theories. After witnessing a tank parade in Bahawalpur, Zia left the small Punjabi town in the C-130 Hercules aircraft designated 'Pak One'. It is a fictionalized account of the death of the Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq, killed in an air crash along with a bevy of his top generals and the US ambassador, Arnold Raphael in 1988 just as they were beginning to celebrate their victory over the Soviets in the Afghanistan War. The title of the novel is a play on words, referring to both the mystery behind what caused the crash, there are a number of different theories that lay the blame at the feet of a number of different suspects, as well as the popular suspicion that the plane was blown up by a bomb planted in a crate of mangoes that was loaded on the plane in Bahawalpur Knowing anything about the actual history is not necessary to enjoy this novel as Hanif sets the scene very well, but one's appreciation only increases of the way he weaves the various theories surrounding the crash into one narrative. For example, there is a subplot about the blind girl Zainab who is imprisoned for fornication after being raped as Zia did introduce a law which automatically made female rape victims criminals if they could not produce eyewitnesses to testify that they were raped. After a human rights demonstrator breaches his security cordon, Zia orders Zainab to essentially be 'disappeared' into the Pakistani version of Guantanamo Bay. There she curses her tormentor, and according to folklore, crows carry the curse of wronged women to their recipients. One of the theories about the plane crash is that it was the result of mechanical failure after a crow was sucked into one of its engines.
Mohammed Hanif skilfully weaves together a variety of subplots, the main one following an air force cade that gets caught up in an investigation after his roommate goes AWOL. Other POVs include Zia himself, his wife, his long time ally and chief of the ISI, General Akhtar his bodyguard and the suave torturer, Major Kiyani.
All this sounds like dour, heavy going, but Hanif is criticizing and makes fun over all these theories and called Zia-Ul-Haq’s death is mysterious. He provokes fun at a whole bevy of sacred cows, terrorism, fundamentalism, the Pakistani army, the ISI, the CIA, and the Mujahideen. All these theories provide fun for reader as well as show the mystery of how ultimately, Zia met his end.
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