The chopper made an emergency landing in a Taliban-controlled district of Logar province on August 4 while flying to Russian Federation for maintenance.
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The missing six crew members of a Pakistani helicopter that crash-landed in Afghanistan last week were recovered and returned to Islamabad on Saturday, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry announced.
The crew’s release was arranged through a handover between tribes in the border region, from where they were transferred to Islamabad by helicopter, the ministry said in a statement.
The released Punjab officials are: Capt Safdar Hussain (Chief pilot), Capt Safdar Ashraf, Capt Muhammad Shafiq-ur-Rehman (First Officer), Nasir Mahmood (Flight Engineer), Mr Muhammad Kausar (Crew Chief) and Sergei Sevastianov (Russian navigator). The Taliban, who had held the crew hostage, later handed over to tribal elders for their release.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the navigator would be handed over to Moscow’s embassy in Islamabad, which would organise his return home.
The persistent raids by United States forces come as the Afghan forces are engaged in a major operation to eliminate the loyalists of the terror group from Nangarhar.
The helicopter was on its way to Russian Federation for maintenance.
According to officials informed about the rescue process, Afghan government has nearly no role in the entire effort.
In Afghanistan, Taliban and Islamic State fighters have battled over territory in Nangarhar, though both have recently been more busy defending against US and Afghan assaults.
Pakistani 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.
“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 Agence France Presse.
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The Afghan Taliban have not commented on the conditions of the release. He said 23 other ISIS fighters were killed in the drone strike on a compound in the mountainous region. The provincial governor’s spokesperson, Salim Saleh, confirmed that the Mi-17 transport helicopter crashed in Azra district, in the restive province of Logar, and immediately caught fire but no one was hurt in the crash.
