ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Monday announced a day of mourning to honour the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and other senior officials in a helicopter crash.
“Pakistan will observe a day of mourning and the flag will fly at half mast as a mark of respect for President Raisi and his companions and in solidarity with Brotherly Iran,” Premier Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
“I along with the government and people of Pakistan extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the Iranian nation on this terrible loss,” the premier said while praying for the martyred souls.
“The great Iranian nation will overcome this tragedy with customary courage,” the prime minister noted.
President Raisi, Foreign MinisterAmirabdollahian and other high officials were returning after attending an inauguration ceremony of a dam on Iran’s border with the Republic of Azerbaijan when the chopper crashed while flying through a mountainous terrain amid heavy fog in the Varzaqan region of the country’s East Azerbaijan province on Sunday afternoon.
According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), East Azarbaijan Province’s Governor Malek Rahmati, and Mehdi Mousavi, the head of Raisi’s guard team were on board the crashed aircraft as well.
A large-scale search and rescue operation in the fog-shrouded mountain area of East Azerbaijan province was launched and the search teams located the wreckage on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari has also expressed “profound shock and sorrow” over the tragic accident.
Read more: Iranian President, FM, others die in helicopter crash; Iranian media confirms
