Two envoys killed as Pakistan Taliban claim they brought down air force chopper

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Taliban on Friday claimed they had shot down a military helicopter packed with foreign diplomats on a leisure trip, killing seven people, including two ambassadors and wives of two other Islamabad-based envoys.
But a military spokesman said the Russian-made MI-17 chopper crashed into a school in mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region because of a technical glitch and it was not a terror attack.
Among the dead were Leif H Larsen, 61, the ambassador of Norway, and 54-year-old Domingo D Lucenario, the Philippine envoy and wives of envoys of Malaysia and Indonesia.
Although, Maj Gen Asif Bajwa, the military press flack, insisted there was no Taliban hand in the crash, the authorities had clearly been spooked by the helicopter going down in the area that is not known to have rebel hideouts.
The Taliban said it was trying to shoot down an aircraft that was supposed to bring in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to the Gilgit-Baltistan province, the same area where the diplomats were headed to. Sharif's plane was diverted back to Islamabad after the helicopter crash.
News agencies cited witnesses on the ground and in other helicopters flying in tandem and carrying diplomats, reporting nothing to indicate any firing.
"It hovered there for a while and then tried to turn when it crashed. Thankfully there were no kids in the school because it was an off-day for security reasons. The helicopter caught fire and was on fire for over an hour," an agency report quoted farmer Shakil Ahmed as saying. "The helicopter came very close to the helipad, maybe 250 meters in the air, just above the school.''
Pakistan air force spokesman Syed Muhammad Ali told the state-run news agency that technical failure forced crash landing of the helicopter and that it caught fire when it went down in Naltar, where the diplomats were being taken for inauguration of a chairlift at a ski resort.
Maj Gen Bajwa said the MI-17's two pilots and a crew member were killed as well while the Dutch and Polish ambassadors Andrzej Ananiczolish and Marcel de Vink survived the crash with "varying degree of injuries''.
"The bodies are so badly torched that they cannot be identified," said Sibtain Ahmed, the home secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Last month, Taliban had claimed it had successfully test-fired a short-range missile, the kind of projectile that could be used against low-flying aircraft. The military had pooh-poohed the reports, denying the terrorists had such technical prowess.
Officials said heads of diplomatic missions from over 30 countries, along with their families and some Pakistani dignitaries, had been flown to Gilgit by a C-130 aircraft. "From there, they were being taken to Naltar in four helicopters for a three-day excursion,'' said a foreign ministry statement.
Romania's ambassador to Pakistan, Emilian Ion, was on the same helicopter and survived. In Warsaw, ministry of foreign affairs said Polish Ambassador Andrzej Ananicz and his wife, Zofia, were on board the helicopter and survived with injuries, which were not life threatening.
Indonesian authorities confirmed Heri Listyawati, the wife of Indonesia's ambassador, was killed while her husband, Burhan Muhammad, survived with injuries.
Sharif expressed his "deep grief and sorrow over the tragic incident'' and said he "extended heartfelt condolences to those who lost their lives in this incident''. He announced a national day of mourning.
Helicopters were evacuating the injured diplomats and the bodies of the deceased to Islamabad. "We are making arrangements to send the bodies of the diplomats to their countries with full honor,'' foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said.
In 1988, Arnold Raphel, then US ambassador to Islamabad, was killed along with military ruler General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in a crash near Bahawalpur.