The main gunman in the slaying was identified by the sources as Lieut. Humud Mo hammed Humud. The officer reportedly killed Sheik Abeid Amani Karume on April 7, ap parently in revenge after having learned that his father had been tortured and killed in a Zanzi bar prison.
Although these reports point to a grudge killing and not a political plot, Sheik Karume's associates seem determined to link the assassination to mem bers of a strongly left‐wing political faction on the Indian Ocean island. Many men have been arrested on Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania, which is loosely linked with Zanzibar in the United Republic of Tan zania.
Sheik Karume, who had re cently changed his title from President of Zanzibar to Chair man of the Revolutionary Council, was at the head quarters of his Afro‐Shirazi party when gunmen burst into the room and killed him with submachine guns.
Assassins Reportedly Killed
The sources said that Lieu tenant Humud, 26 years old, had been a member of the Arab ethnic minority that had mono polized power on Zanzibar before the black majority seized power in a revolution on Jan. 12, 1964. Lieutenant Humud and four other assassins were later killed, reports said.
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Sheik Karume's death re sulted from the long record of injustice, repression and cruelty that has marked Zanzibar his tory since the island was a 19th century slave market.
In 1955 when Zanzibar was a British protectorate there was a political dispute in which the Arab aristocracy ordered a boy cott of the island's legislative council. When one member, Sheik Ahmed el‐Mugheiry, re turned to the council, he was seriously wounded on the street. He was taken to a hos pital. Another robed Arab, mak ing sounds of lamentation, ob tained entry and bending over the wounded man, plunged a dagger into him, killing him.
The killer, Lieutenant Hu mud's father, Mohammed Hu mud, was sentenced to death, but the ruling sultan commuted his sentence. The elder Humud was released from prison by Sheik Karume in 1964 after the revolution but was arrested on suspicion of political plotting that October.
Father Was Believed Dead
Sheik Karume later abol lieve strongly in courts or trials, and it was difficult to learn the fate of such prisoners unless, as sometimes happened, he announced their execution or released them. Friends said that Lieut. Humud had long suspected that his father was dead but was not sure and that he had become moody.
Sheik Karume later “abol ished prisons on Zanzibar and released several hundred pris oners. Nineteen men arrested last year on charges of allegedly plotting a revolution were sen tenced to work as cowherds for periods of three to 10 years. Released prisoners, the reports said, informed Lieutenant Humud that his father had been tortured and executed in prison.
Another member of the group of assassins, the reports said, was Capt. Ahmada Mohammed Ali. When the 19 alleged plot ters were publicly paraded last May, the officer, then a lieu tenant, made a speech accusing them of having suggested to him that he recruit members of the army for a plot against Sheik Karume. The officer was promoted to captain after the speech, but according to one account he said privately that he had lied and resented his role.
Party's Founder Arrested
All the assassins have been reported killed in gunfights with security forces, but many other men have been picked up. Almost all of them seem to be members or adherents of the former Umma party, which merged with Sheik Karume's Afro‐Shirazi party in 1964.
Among those arrested in mainland Tanzania was Abdul Rahman Mohammed Babu, founder of the Umma party and a onetime associate of Sheik Karume on Zanzibar's Revolu tionary Council. Mr. Babu's Umma followers include a num ber of men who have received training in Cuba, the Soviet Union and China. They were known to have criticized Sheik Karume and his faction on grounds that Sheik Karume was not a real “Socialist.”
“In fact,” said one source, “Karma was an African tradi tionalist and feudalist who adopted many of the attitudes of the Arab sultans he and his black followers overthrew.” The Russians and East Ger mans have lost any influence they once had on Zanzibar, and the Chinese seem as baffled as anyone else by the Revolu tionary Council's arbitrary and sometimes chaotic administra tive methods, sources said Missions from the three coun tries had moved into Zanzibar after the 1964 revolution.
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