Afghan Taliban free Pak chopper crew

Five Pakistanis and a Russian who were captured by the Afghan Taliban after their government helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan have been released and returned to Pakistan, the foreign ministry said yesterday. The Russian-made transport helicopter belonging to the Punjab provincial government was en route from Peshawar in northwest Pakistan to Uzbekistan for maintenance on Aug 4 when it suffered a technical failure and crash-landed in a Taliban-held area of Logar province in eastern Afghanistan. The crew's release was arranged through a handover between tribes in the border region, from where they were transferred to Islamabad by helicopter, the ministry said in a statement.