On Thursday, A Chopper of Pakistani government crash-landed in Afghanistan. Officials said that all passengers and crew members are captured by the insurgents.
The Chopper went down in Logar province which is close to the Afghan-Pakistan border. This province is an increasingly lawless area since two-year when the military of Pakistan pushed many Taliban through the military operations and allied fighters further into Afghanistan.
This is not confirmed that the Taliban group held crew of crashed chopper of Pakistan. The Taliban terror group wants to swap them for Mullah Baradar who was arrested by Pakistan military in the year 2010. Mullah Baradar is one of the key figures in Taliban who was responsible for inception of Taliban group.
Spokesman for the Governor of Logar, Sameem Saleh said that those passengers and crew members who were detained by the Taliban group are all Pakistanis. He also said that the chopper was not shot but made the landing because of technical failure.
A Spokesman of Pakistani Foreign Office confirmed that a helicopter belong to the Government of Punjab provincial had gone down. He said that the fate of the crew and passengers was not yet clear.
Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said that the Afghan authorities have assured they will investigate and learn about the whereabouts of the helicopter and the passengers.
Zakaria said that 7 passengers were on board. Six of them Pakistanis and one Russian technician. The pilot was Pakistani.
He also said that the chopper had permission to fly over Afghan air space on its way to Uzbekistan further north.
Military spokesman Lt General Asim Bajwa said in a statement that On Thursday, Chief of Pakistan Army General Raheel Sharif spoke with the top US commander General John Nicholson asking for the international military help in recovering the Pakistani personnel.
District Governor of Azra of Logar Province, Hameed Khan said that they were detained by the Taliban.
A military official of Pakistan said that the MI-17, a Russian made transport helicopter was take off from Peshawar, Pakistan to Uzbekistan for maintenance. It made an emergency landing when the chopper experienced technical failure.
Leave a Reply