ISLAMABAD: The six-member crew of a Punjab government helicopter that went missing in Afghanistan on August 4 has been recovered and arrived safely in Islamabad.
“All crew members are safe and in good health,” Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said in a statement issued here on Saturday.
“The crew was released in an inter-tribe exchange on the Pakistan-Afghan border in FATA. They were further transported from FATA to Islamabad by a helicopter,” it said.
In a separate development, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed pleasure over the safe recovery of pilots and crew of helicopter of Punjab government from Afghanistan.
Shahbaz congratulated the crew members and their families on their return. He also thanked Allah Almighty that the crew of the helicopter remained safe and has returned to Pakistan.
The Punjab chief minister also thanked federal institutions concerned for their efforts and timely steps for the recovery of the six-member crew.
The crew members, five Pakistanis and a Russian, were captured by the Taliban militants after their government helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan on August 4.
The Russian-made transport helicopter belonging to the Punjab government was en route from Peshawar to Uzbekistan for maintenance when it suffered a technical failure and crash-landed in a Taliban-held area of Logar province in eastern Afghanistan.
