What happened
An Mi-17 helicopter of Pakistan Army Aviation crashed near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), on Wednesday, 10 June 2026, during take-off “due to a technical fault”, the military’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. Rescue and recovery teams reached the site immediately.
“All personnel on board embraced martyrdom. There were no survivors,” the ISPR said in a statement, adding that “a board of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the exact technical cause of the accident”. The ISPR did not specify how many people were on board.
Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, along with all ranks of the army, expressed deep grief over the loss of lives and extended condolences to the bereaved families, the ISPR said. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also expressed sorrow, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported, with Zardari saying the nation paid tribute to the martyrs’ sacrifice and shared the families’ grief.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said he was deeply saddened by the crash, and Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti called the dead the “pride of the nation”. The Senate offered funeral prayers in absentia, led by Senator Maulana Attaur Rehman.
Why it matters
The crash adds to a string of military and government helicopter accidents in recent years. Five personnel died in September 2025 when an army helicopter came down in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district after a technical fault. In August 2025, a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government rescue helicopter crashed in Mohmand district in bad weather, killing two pilots and three crew members. In August 2022, an army helicopter went missing in Balochistan’s Lasbela district and all six on board, including a corps commander, were later confirmed dead; the following month six army officials died in a crash near Harnai.
The incident occurred in a region under heavy security, Al Jazeera reported, after authorities banned the Joint Awami Action Committee and deployed federal paramilitary troops following clashes in Rawalakot on 7 June that officials said killed 11 people. Talks between the federal team and the committee had ended without a breakthrough on 30 May, and the AJK Home Department had earlier listed the committee in the First Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act. AJK is due to hold elections on 27 July 2026.
