Taliban confirm holding helicopter crash victims captive
Friday, August 5th, 2016 8:30:41 by fatimaarshad
The Afghan Taliban have officially confirmed holding all crew members of a crashed Punjab Government helicopter captive. This confirmation came on Friday as the Taliban also assured that all the crew members are alive and doing well.
“All crew members, including a Russian national, are in the custody of the Taliban commanders in their controlled areas in Logar,” Taliban sources confirmed to The Express Tribune.
“They all are safe and a final decision will be taken by the leadership,” a Taliban source said.
A helicopter carrying six people crashed in Afghanistan’s Logar province on Thursday. The chopper was on its way to Russia via Uzbekistan for overhaul. After the crash, the Taliban reportedly set the helicopter on fire and took its crew members as captives.
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 Afghan President assured the chief that all possible help will be extended for this purpose.
President Ghani also instructed the security forces to recover the crew members of the crashed Punjab government’s helicopter and return them safely to their country.
“The President has been in the loop form the outset and has instructed the Governor of Logar as well as our security forces to assist in recovering of the hostages. I do believe there will be a peaceful ending to this,” his special envoy for Pakistan Ambassador Omar Zakhilwal said.
It was also confirmed by official sources that relevant authorities had first gained permission for flying over Afghanistan air space and that the helicopter had the “needed over-flight permission to fly to Uzbekistan over Afghanistan.”
It is being hoped that the Taliban will safely return the crew members and that this episode will end peacefully.
Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=53792
Posted by fatimaarshad
on Aug 5 2016. Filed under Pakistan.
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