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International Attack-Terrorism
3 Pakistani Generals Perish in Air Crash
Azhar Masood, Arab News —
Thursday 7 February 2008 (30 Muharram 1429)
ISLAMABAD, 7 February 2008 — A Pakistani Army helicopter crashed yesterday in the country’s northwest, killing three generals and five other soldiers.
The aircraft went down in South Waziristan, said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate.
The area has been the scene of intense fighting between Pakistani forces and armed rebels, but Maj. Gen. Abbas said initial reports indicated the crash occurred due to a technical fault in the helicopter.
He said the pilot had reported an unspecified technical problem before the crash, which occurred near the road that links Wana, South Waziristan’s main town, with Jandola, another town in the area.
Weather in the area was “not bad” at the time, said Maj. Gen. Abbas. The crash victims were identified as Maj. Gen. Javed Sultan, Brig. Afzal Cheema, Brig. Saeed Khan, Lt. Col. Omar Farooq, Capt. Shehzad, Capt. Naveed, Capt. Haroon and Naik Amir.
Maj. Gen. Javed Sultan was in charge of anti-Taleban operations in the region.
The crash took place hours after Baitullah Mehsud, a pro-Taleban commander blamed for the murder of former Premier Benazir Bhutto, declared an indefinite cease-fire with government forces. “We have announced a cease-fire for an indefinite period because the government stopped attacking us,” Maulvi Omar, the spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan, told news agencies by telephone.
“Baitullah Mehsud has ordered his people to stop attacks against Pakistani forces from Waziristan to Swat and other areas of Pakistan,” he added. “It is not a formal agreement with the government forces but we have done it voluntarily.”
Maulvi Omar said the cease-fire decision was taken at a shoura (consultative meeting) chaired by Baitullah Mehsud. “The government has shown leniency over the past four or five days,” he said. “That’s why we are declaring a cease-fire.”
However, Maj. Gen. Abbas said the army would keep up operations against the militant groups in the region. “There is no formal information conveyed to us from them about a cease-fire. When they stopped firing we thought it was because of the severe weather conditions in the region,” he said. “Our position is very clear — the operation has not ended, it will continue until the objectives of the operations are achieved,” he added.
— Additional inputs from agencies