Pakistan Army rules out terror plot; Taliban claims helicopter downing

GILGIT, Pakistan—A Pakistani military helicopter crashed Friday, killing seven people including the Norwegian and Philippine envoys and setting a school building ablaze in a remote northern valley.

The Pakistani Taliban later claimed the group had struck the aircraft with a ground-to-air missile hoping to assassinate Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who was flying to the region at the same time—but the claim was rebutted by officials and multiple eye-witnesses.

“A special group of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had prepared a special plan to target Nawaz Sharif during his visit but he survived because he was traveling in another helicopter,” militant spokesperson Muhammad Khorasani said.

Pakistan’s Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa, however, ruled out the possibility of any terrorist or subversive activity in the crash.

He said the helicopter crashed due to a technical fault.

Bajwa, however, said that as per procedure, a board of inquiry has been constituted to investigate the cause of the crash, in which the helicopter fell onto a school and set the building ablaze. Officials clarified the school was shut at the time.

The helicopter was one of three carrying a delegation of ambassadors to inspect projects on a three-day trip to Gilgit-Baltistan where they were set to meet with Sharif.

A statement by Sharif’s office had said he was on a plane—not helicopter—en route to the Gilgit area at the time of the incident, but turned back to Islamabad after news of the crash broke.

He was set to inaugurate a chair-lift at a ski resort, one of the region’s top administrative officials told AFP.

Leif H. Larsen, the Norwegian envoy, and Domingo D. Lucenario Jr. of the Philippines, were killed along with the wives of the Malaysian and Indonesian ambassadors, as well as the helicopter’s two pilots, according to official tweets by the army.

● Norwegian, Philippine envoys among 6 dead in Pakistan chopper crash

Polish Ambassador Andrzej Ananiczolish and Dutch Ambassador Marcel de Vink were also injured, the army said.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Vink’s injury.

Worst air crash

It was Pakistan’s worst air crash since 2012 when a Boeing 737 passenger plane went down in Islamabad, killing 130 people.

In 1988, a plane crash killed Pakistan’s then military-ruler General Zia-ul-Haq as well as the US ambassador at the time, Arnold Raphel.

A senior local administration official said the crash set the school building on fire, but that no children were in class at the time.

“The school, built by Pakistan Air Force for the children of the area, was closed as part of a security plan for the prime minister’s visit,” he said. Earlier, an official had said that the school was open.

Sher Ahmed, a local resident who was near the site of the crash, confirmed that the area had been under heavy security in preparation for the visit since Thursday.

“I was in my garden with my family watching the helicopters arriving when we heard a loud explosion and then the school building was in flames,” he said.

According to a list of passengers obtained by AFP, the ambassadors of Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Romania, Norway, South Africa, the Philippines and Poland were scheduled to fly on the helicopter.

“It was a diplomatic trip with members of 37 countries in total,” said a passenger in one of the helicopters, who requested anonymity, concurring that the school had caught fire after the crash.

The passenger added that the air convoy was supposed to have included four helicopters but the number was later reduced to three.

One of the three MI-17 helicopters carried foreign diplomats; another carried the prime minister and his staff and a third one carried senior military officials.

Spectacular mountain ranges

The injured were being airlifted to a military hospital in Gilgit, the region’s administrative capital, some 50 kilometers to the southwest, added another senior local police official.

In the city of Gilgit, a hospital official said the injured were being carried on stretchers to the emergency ward of the Combined Military Hospital.

Known for its spectacular mountain ranges, Gilgit-Baltistan is a strategically important autonomous region that borders China, Afghanistan and Indian-held Kashmir.

Earlier, in a series of tweets, Bajwa said that six Pakistanis and 11 foreigners were on board the MI-17 helicopter.

Sharif has extended heartfelt condolences on the sad demise of the two ambassadors and the spouses of two other envoys who died in today’s incident and has declared one day mourning in relation to the incident.

He also expressed concern over the conditions of the injured diplomats and prayed for their speedy recovery.

He directed concerned authorities to provide the injured diplomats with the best medical treatment. The premier also directed authorities to dispatch planes and helicopters to evacuate the injured diplomats and transport the bodies to Islamabad.

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