"Yes, the news (of the death of Mrs. Heri Listyawati in the accident) is true," Spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry Arramanatha stated here on Friday.
Indonesian Ambassador to Pakistan Burhan Muhammad, who was also one of the passengers aboard the ill-fated helicopter, survived the accident but suffered injuries.
Arrmanantha added that at present, his office was in constant contact with the Indonesian Embassy in Islamabad to get details about the accident.
Based on information received by Antara National News Agency, the party, invited by the Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry, left for northern Pakistan on a helicopter.
The party, which comprised 32 ambassadors and their spouses and 25 others, were flown by four helicopters.
The helicopter that was flying 17 passengers---11 foreigners, including Indonesian Ambassador Burhan Muhammad and his wife Heri Listyawati, and 6 Pakistani citizens---met with an accident at 11:45 a.m. local time.
In the crash, four people were reportedly killed, namely the wife of the Indonesian ambassador, the wife of the Malaysian ambassador to Pakistan, the Filipino ambassador and the Norwegian ambassador.
According to Reuters, the chopper was a Pakistani military helicopter that flew diplomats to the launch of projects in northern Pakistan. The crash killed six people, including the ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines and the wives of the ambassadors of Malaysia and Indonesia, the army said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was travelling to the mountainous northern region of Gilgit on a separate aircraft to launch two projects when the accident happened. He returned to Islamabad, according to his office.
Spokesman for the Pakistani Military Asim Bajwa noted in a Twitter post that apart from the four foreigners, the two pilots were killed as well.
He added that the ambassadors of Poland and the Netherlands were among the injured.
The media has reported that 11 foreigners and six Pakistanis were on board the MI-17, which crashed into a school in Gilgit and caught fire, and that five foreigners and three Pakistanis were killed.
The military spokesman was not immediately available for comment. He did not say why the aircraft had crashed.
Moreover, Pakistani Taliban militants claimed that they had shot down the helicopter with a shoulder-launched missile, adding that they had been hoping to shoot down Sharifs aircraft.
"Nawaz Sharif and his allies are our prime targets," Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khurasani said in an emailed statement.
The militants do no operate in the Gilgit area, and they often claim responsibility for incidents that they have nothing to do with.
(Uu.INE/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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