Afghan Taliban have released six crew members, including a Russian, of a Pakistani helicopter that crashed-landed in Afghanistan's Logar province and arrived here on Saturday. According to Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria, the six-member crew of Punjab government helicopter that went missing in Afghanistan on August 04, 2016 was recovered. It arrived in Islamabad on Saturday. He said that the crew was released in an inter-tribe exchange on the Pakistan-Afghan border, adding they were further transported from FATA to Islamabad by a helicopter.
"All crew members are safe and in good health," he added. The crew members include chief pilot Captain Safdar Hussain, first officer Captain Mohammad Shafiq-ur-Rehman, flight engineer Nasir Mahmood, crew chief Mohammad Kausar, Russian navigator Sergei Sevastianov and Captain Safdar Ashraf. However, sources told Business Recorder that the crew members were handed over to Pakistani authorities at Speena Shagha area of Upper Kurram Agency along Pak-Afghan border after negotiations between the local tribal elders from both the sides. They were later transported to Parachinar, the headquarters of Kurram Agency, and then to Islamabad via helicopter.
There were conflicting reports about the helicopter as some media reports claimed that it was set on fire by the Taliban after it crash-landed in Logar, the region where the militants are in control. However, other reports suggest that the helicopter caught fire soon after it crash-landed and all the crew members were taken into custody by the Taliban. On Thursday, the Foreign Office spokesperson said that the APBGX type MI-17 helicopter of the government of Punjab flying over the Afghan aerial territory on its journey through Central Asia disappeared from the flight control system.
This coincided with reports from the Afghan media that a helicopter crash-landed in Logar province in Afghanistan and that the Pakistani crew members and a Russian navigator were taken into custody by the Taliban insurgents, he added. He said the helicopter had flight clearance for the journey from the Afghan air control authorities as per a usual procedure, adding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately approached the Afghan authorities through Pakistan Embassy in Kabul as well as Afghan Embassy in Islamabad for ascertaining the whereabouts of the missing helicopter and early recovery of the crew.
AFP adds: The crew "was released in an inter-tribe exchange on the Pakistan-Afghan border (and) arrived in Islamabad today," foreign ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in a statement. He neither specified who had been holding the crew hostage nor what kind of exchange had secured their release. All six - five Pakistanis and a Russian navigator - are "safe and in good health," he said, adding that the helicopter belonged to the Punjab provincial government.
A senior Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the crew's safe return. After the August 4 crash, local authorities in Afghanistan said the six-person crew had been taken hostage by the Afghan Taliban. Militants set the MI-17 transport helicopter on fire and took the crew to a Taliban-controlled area after it made an emergency landing in Logar province.
The crew included retired Pakistani military officers and a Russian navigator, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported at the time. Pakistan had sought permission to fly a helicopter - being sent to Russia for overhauling - over Afghan air space. Russia's foreign ministry said the navigator would be handed over to Moscow's embassy in Islamabad, which would organise his return home.
Army chief General Raheel Sharif said he had spoken to the Afghan president after the crash in a bid to secure the crew's release. "President Ashraf Ghani assured all possible assistance in this regard," he posted on Twitter. Analysts said it was not clear how the Pakistan government had secured the crew's safe release. "Our government is tight lipped while the army also did not say anything about the role of the Afghan government," security analyst Hasan Askari told AFP.
The Afghan Taliban have not commented on the conditions of the release. "One thing is however, very clear - that the Afghan Taliban certainly do not want to deteriorate their ties with Pakistan," Askari said, referring to Islamabad's backing of the Taliban regime during its time in power in Afghanistan. He questioned why the helicopter was being sent to Russia for repairs through Afghan airspace, describing it as a "mysterious exercise".
Pakistan's army uses Russian-made MI-17 helicopters, several of which have crashed in recent years. In February, an army officer was killed when a military helicopter crashed in northern Pakistan on a routine night training mission. Last August, 12 people were killed when a helicopter belonging to the army crashed in north-west Pakistan. And seven people - including two foreign ambassadors - died in May last year when an MI-17 army helicopter crashed at a holiday resort in the hills of Gilgit.