Taliban holds crashed Pakistan chopper crew

The Taliban militants group has not commented regarding the report so far.

“The foreign tourists – three Americans, six Britons, two Scots and one German – were travelling with an Afghan army convoy when they were ambushed by the Taliban in Chesht-e-Sharif”, said Jilani Farhad, the spokesman for Herat’s governor. He said the Taliban captured the crew and set the helicopter on fire.

Six people, including a Russian national, aboard were taken hostage by the Taliban as the helicopter landed in Logar province while on its way to Russia via Uzbekistan for fix and maintenance, Xinhua news agency reported.

A helicopter of Pakistan’s Punjab province government crash-landed in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, following which the Taliban insurgents took the crew hostage before setting the helicopter on fire.

Yesterday, press attaché at the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul, Akhtar Munir, told Pajhwok Afghan News Pakistan was planning to send a helicopter to Uzbekistan for overhauling and it was possible the same helicopter had crashed.

District Governor of Azra of Logar Province, Hameed Khan said that they were detained by the Taliban.

“We believe that it was our chopper but we need confirmation from the Afghan government”, an official of Punjab government told PTI. “Also, it might be hard for the locals to differentiate between a civilian and an army helicopter”, Khan said.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif also called Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to request his country’s help.

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.

The $300m was not released because Ashton Carter, the USA secretary of defence, decided against making a certification “that Pakistan has taken sufficient action against the Haqqani network”, Adam Stump, Pentagon spokesperson, said on Wednesday.

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.

“The helicopter is not ours”, a military official said. In February, an Army officer was killed when a military helicopter crashed in northern Pakistan on a routine night training mission.