Ambassador Muhammad`s condition had been deteriorating since Monday night due to a lung infection.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Ambassador to Pakistan Burhan Muhammad passed away in Singapores General Hospital, on Tuesday, at 0:15 a.m. local time, after suffering serious burn injuries caused by a helicopter crash in Pakistan, on May 8.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi offered her condolences here on Tuesday morning.

Ambassador Muhammad was being treated in Pakistan before being moved to Singapore on Tuesday (May 12).

"May Allah give his soul the best place beside Him and give strength to his family to go through this grief," Minister Retno said.

According to the Foreign Affairs Director of Citizens and Legal Entities Protection, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, Ambassador Muhammads condition had been deteriorating since Monday night due to a lung infection.

Ambassador Muhammad is survived by his two sons, while his wife Hery Listyawati Burhan Muhammad was killed on board the ill-fated helicopter, which crashed in Pakistan.

The body of Ambassador Muhammad will be repatriated from Singapore to Jakarta on Tuesday, at 5:35 p.m. local time, and the Foreign Affairs Ministry will be the venue where the people can pay their last tributes to the late ambassador.

The wife of Ambassador Muhammad, Hery Listyawati, was buried beside her parents graves in Warung Boto village, Umbulharjo sub-district, Yogyakarta, on Thursday (May 14).

The Pakistani government bestowed Hery Listyawati Burhan Muhammad with the "Star of Pakistan" award for her contribution in strengthening bilateral relations between Indonesia and Pakistan.

The Pakistani government says the helicopter suffered an engine failure, dismissing as bogus a Pakistani Taliban claim that the militants shot it down.

Based on information received by Antara National News Agency, the party, invited by the Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry, left for northern Pakistan on board a helicopter.

The group included 32 ambassadors and their spouses, along with 25 others who were flown in four helicopters.

The crash in the mountainous area of Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan killed seven people, including the wife of the Indonesian ambassador, the wife of the Malaysian ambassador to Pakistan, the Filipino ambassador, and the Norwegian ambassador.

Three Pakistani crewmen were also killed, and several diplomats were injured when the Mi-17 helicopter crashed into a school in a valley lined by pine forests and overlooked by snow-peaked mountains. No children were in the school at the time of the crash.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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