Pakistan seeks return of helicopter crash hostages from Afghan Taliban

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the government is trying “formal and informal channels” for recovery of the passengers.

Sharif made the comments in an August 5 statement, after the Pakistani government aircraft crash-landed the day before in the eastern Afghan province of Logar. The Afghan President assured the chief that all possible help will be extended for this goal.

The Afghan President has assured COAS of his government’s full support in this regard; Director General Inter Services Public Relations Lt-Gen Asim Saleem tweeted.

Hameed Khan, district governor of Azra district of Logar, said the helicopter landed in his border district, which lies across from Pakistan’s Kurram agency.

A spokesman for the governor of Herat, Jalani Farhad, said the Taliban were responsible for the ambush.

The plane was set on fire by the Afghan Taliban, who also held Pakistani officials and a Russian pilot hostage.

“All crew members are safe”, Zakilwal said on Friday. Officials said six people were wounded although none seriously, including a foreign woman and a driver.

The Mi-17 chopper which was on its way to Russian Federation via Uzbekistan for maintenance crash-landed in Afghanistan’s Logar province.

Earlier today, Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif requested Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to assist in the safe recovery of the crew members.

The BBC says that the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) does not have data from the Afghan government on tourists statistics, but the UNWTO does receive information on tourist expenditures.

Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in posts on Twitter they had killed the foreign “invaders” as well as seven “slave” Afghan soldiers.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the incident and said the government had initiated multi-layered efforts to rescue the crew and passengers of the helicopter.

The Taliban terror group wants to swap them for Mullah Baradar who was arrested by Pakistan military in the year 2010. “We think the same chopper crash-landed in Logar”, Akhtar Munir told AFP.

It is unclear what a Pakistani helicopter was doing in Afghan airspace, TOLOnews reported.