A Mi-17 military helicopter has crashed in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, killing all personnel onboard, the army said on Wednesday, as deadly protests raged on in the region for a fourth day.
The helicopter suffered a technical fault and crashed during take-off in the city of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the army said in a statement.
The statement said all onboard were killed, but didn’t give an exact number of casualties.
A Mi-17 military helicopter can carry up to 36 fully equipped troopers.
The accident occurred as violent protests that started on Sunday continued to grip major cities in the region, with 14 confirmed deaths so far as security forces are cracking down on the growing number of demonstrators.
The unrest was triggered by a ban on a local grassroots political movement, which was designated a terrorist group on Friday ahead of planned demonstrations.
Military helicopters have been deployed to monitor the protests in Muzaffarabad and other regions, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the one that crashed was part of those operations.
The Himalayan region of Kashmir is claimed by the nuclear-armed states of India and Pakistan, each of which controls part of the territory.
Since the end of British colonial rule and the partition of British India in 1947, the region has repeatedly been the scene of armed conflict between the two countries.
The current protests are taking place in the Pakistani-controlled part of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.