Pak army commander killed, Baloch rebels suspected

Lt Gen Sarfraz Ali - the Quetta Corps commander - is a high-ranking figure who handles counter-insurgency in the area and protects the border with south Afghanistan.

Updated on: Aug 2, 2022, 12:02:53 IST

By Shishir Gupta

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A Pakistan Army helicopter carrying Quetta Corps commander Lt Gen Sarfraz Ali and five others crashed late Monday night in the Lasbela area of Balochistan, according to inputs received from that country. All six on board are believed to be dead and, while the crash is being investigated, there is very strong and credible suspicion the chopper may have been shot by down Baloch rebels.

Quetta Corps commander Lt Gen Sarfraz Ali (File)

Inputs have said the Balochistan Liberation Army - who have made no statement yet - may have targeted the helicopter because the Quetta Corps commander - a high-ranking figure who handles counter-insurgency in the area and protects the border with south Afghanistan - was on board.

Reports from Pakistan identify the other five killed as Brigadier Amjad Haneef (DG Coast Guard), Major Saeed (the pilot), Major Talha (the co-pilot) and Naik Mudasir (crew member).

According to further reports, the chopper lost contact with ground control, shortly after taking off from a base in Balochistan's Lasbela district.

Search ops for the missing aircraft area underway in the southwestern regions of Balochistan.

A senior police official told a local media outlet that the mountainous terrain in the sparsely populated region is hampering attempts to locate the wreckage and bodies, or survivors.

Pak prime minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed concern and asked the nation to pray for the soldiers.

"The disappearance of Army helicopter from Balochistan is alarming. The entire nation prays to Allah Almighty for the safety, security and return of these sons of the country who came out to help the flood victims. God willing..." the prime minister tweeted in Urdu.

Former PM Imran Khan extended his prayers for the safety of those onboard the downed chopper, tweeting: "Disturbing news of army aviation helicopter missing and praying for all those on board."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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