JAKARTA: An Indonesian ambassador who was on a Pakistani military helicopter that crashed this month killing two other foreign envoys died Tuesday after battling severe burn injuries, Indonesia's foreign minister said.

Ambassador Burhan Muhammad, 58, was aboard the military helicopter, along with his wife and a delegation of ambassadors when it crashed on May 8 and set a school building ablaze in the Gilgit area of northern Pakistan.

His wife, the Norwegian and Filipino ambassadors, and the wife of the Malaysian envoy were killed immediately.

Read: Army copter crashes in Naltar; 7 die

Muhammad had severe injuries and had to be evacuated to a Singapore hospital last week.

“Indonesia's foreign ministry has just lost one of its best diplomats, Ambassador Burhan Muhammad, who passed away at 00:50 on May 19 local time in Singapore,” foreign minister Retno Marsudi said.

Muhammad and his wife are survived by their two sons.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed deep grief and sorrow over Burhan's death.

Nawaz Sharif lauded late Ambassador's role in promoting friendship between Indonesia and Pakistan and prayed for the departed soul and courage to the bereaved family to bear their loss.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed to have struck the aircraft with a ground-to-air missile hoping to assassinate Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who was flying to the region at the same time, but the claim was rebutted by officials and multiple eye-witnesses, including foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry.

Also read: Bodies of Naltar chopper crash victims flown to Nur Khan Airbase

The military and Pakistan's foreign office said the crash was due to a technical fault while landing. Officials added the school was shut at the time.

It was Pakistan's worst air crash since 2012, when a Boeing 737 passenger plane went down in Islamabad, killing 130 people.

Opinion

Editorial

Unquiet Lebanon
Updated 21 Jun, 2026

Unquiet Lebanon

Either Israel must silence its guns and withdraw from all of Lebanon, or face isolation and boycott from the international community.
Mothers at risk
21 Jun, 2026

Mothers at risk

FOR years, efforts to reduce maternal deaths have focused heavily on postpartum haemorrhage — the severe bleeding...
Political budget
21 Jun, 2026

Political budget

THE KP budget does not read like a document of a province getting its fiscal house in order. Revenue is projected at...
Pakistan’s moment
Updated 20 Jun, 2026

Pakistan’s moment

Pakistan’s diplomats are second to none, and if these states seek to engage this country constructively, a new modus vivendi for the subcontinent can be reached.
Menacing water plans
20 Jun, 2026

Menacing water plans

IN April last year, India suspended the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty, which contains no provision allowing it to...
World Refugee Day
20 Jun, 2026

World Refugee Day

WORLD Refugee Day, observed today around the globe, marks 75 years since the adoption of the 1951 convention ...