It is difficult not to believe the claim of Tehreek-e-Pakistan Taliban that the Pakistani military aircraft that crashed in the jungles of Pak-occupied Kashmir killing seven people including the ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines was brought down by a missile fired by them from shoulder-length. The terror outfit claimed that its target was Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who was travelling to the same resort by another helicopter. The Pakistani Taliban has held a grudge against Sharif for having ordered a military crackdown on their hideouts since months and eliminated over 1,000 of their cadres.
It is entirely possible that the Taliban was out to get Sharif but that the terror outfit’s intelligence was so bad that it downed the wrong helicopter is again puzzling, though not unbelievable. Along with the two envoys the wives of the ambassadors of Malaysia and Indonesia were also killed in the crash. Two other envoys, of Poland and the Netherlands, were also injured in the incident.
The Pakistani Army’s claim that it was not a terrorist attack or the work of subversive elements and that the chopper had crashed due to a technical error while landing militates against the claim of subversives that one of their men had shot down the chopper by a missile that was fired from shoulder length. That such missiles are in use in the region is no state secret.
Once the news of the crash of the ill-fated chopper was flashed to the other two aircraft that were headed for the same picturesque site with other diplomats, they backed off and Nawaz Sharif who was on one of them escaped unscathed.
It is strange that the diplomats set out on such a dangerous mission in an area which was vulnerable to such terrorist attacks. It was in the same area where, many years earlier, the then Pakistan president, General Zia-ul-Haq and the US ambassador to Pakistan who was accompanying him were preyed upon through bomb attacks by subversives.
Between then and now, the relations between the Pakistan government and the subversives have worsened considerably. Only an investigation done under international supervision can now establish where lies the truth. In any event, this is a huge blow to Pakistan’s efforts to convince the world that the country, especially its mountainous regions are safe for travel by dignitaries.
