Martyrs of helicopter crash laid to rest with full military honours

• Army contingent presents guard of honour to martyred soldiers. 
• COAS General Bajwa presents national flag to relatives of martyrs.
• PM says entire nation salutes the brave officers and men.

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RAWALPINDI: Three senior officers of the Pakistan Army, who were martyred in a helicopter crash in Balochistan Tuesday, were laid to rest with full military honours in Rawalpindi, the  Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.

The funeral prayers of Lieutenant General Sarfraz Ali, Major General Amjad Hanif, and Brigadier Muhammad Khalid were offered at the Army graveyard in Rawalpindi, the military’s media wing said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, federal ministers, Azad Jammu and Kashmir's prime minister, foreign dignitaries and a large number of senior serving, retired military and civil officials and relatives of the martyrs attended the funeral prayers.

The ISPR said that an army contingent presented a guard of honour to the martyred soldiers. While Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa presented the national flag to the relatives of martyrs.

PM Shehbaz, in a statement on Twitter, confirmed that he had attended the funeral of the martyrs of the Balochistan helicopter tragedy and prayed for their elevation. 

"The entire nation, including me, salutes these brave officers and men who sacrificed their lives to help the helpless people trapped in the floods," said the PM.

Six Pakistan Army personnel martyred in Balochistan helicopter crash: ISPR

The Pakistan Army helicopter that had gone missing Tuesday evening in Balochistan crashed, leaving six military personnel martyred, ISPR had said a day earlier.

The military chopper had gone missing as it was en route from Quetta to Karachi at around 5:30pm. The personnel in the chopper were overseeing the flood relief efforts in the southwest of the country.

Above normal monsoon rains and deadly flooding have hit Pakistan hard this year, killing hundreds of people so far and wreaking havoc, particularly in Balochistan.

The army has remained involved in rescue and relief efforts there.

The ISPR, in a statement, said that the wreckage of the unfortunate helicopter was found in Musa Goth, Windar, Lasbela. It said that the accident occurred due to "bad weather" as per the initial investigation.

All six officers and soldiers, including Corps Commander Quetta Lieutenant General Sarfraz Ali, embraced martyrdom, the military's media wing added.

Lieutenant General Sarfaraz Ali, who was commandant at the Command & Staff College in Quetta, had been commissioned in six Azad Kashmir regiments in March 1989 and served the Pakistan Army for 33 years. The Director-General Pakistan Coast Guard Major General Amjad Hanif had been commissioned in 19 Azad Kashmir regiments in April 1994 and served for 29 years in the Pakistan Army.

Commander Engineers 12 Corps Brigadier Muhammad Khalid had been commissioned in the 20 Engineer Battalion in 1994 and served for 29 years in the Pakistan Army. Major Saeed Ahmed was the pilot while Major Muhammad Talha Manan was the co-pilot. Naik Mudassir Fayyaz, the chief of the crew, was also on board and embraced martyrdom.

The officers were part of the relief operations in Balochistan as the monsoon flooding, which began in mid-June, killed almost 500 people so far in Pakistan, including 149 in the province alone.