Soldiers and residents surround the wreckage of a military helicopter after it crashed south of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir Monday. (Amiruddin Mughal/Reuters)
Army helicopter escorting Musharraf crashes in Kashmir, killing 4 soldiers
MUJHOI, Pakistan: One of three helicopters escorting General Pervez Musharraf crashed in the Pakistan portion of Kashmir on Monday, killing four soldiers on board, but the president was unhurt, officials said.
Major General Waheed Arshad, the army spokesman, blamed a "technical fault" for the crash of the military helicopter and said that Musharraf had already reached his destination when the accident occurred.
The crash revives concern about the safety of the general, who has survived several assassination attempts. It happened two days after he secured a provisional victory in a controversial presidential election.
Musharraf traveled to Kashmir on Monday to commemorate the second anniversary of the Oct. 8, 2005, earthquake that killed nearly 80,000 people.
The helicopter crashed in Mujhoi, about 20 kilometers, or 12 miles, south of Muzaffarabad, the main town in the Pakistan portion of the Himalayan territory.
The president's spokesman, Rashid Qureshi, was among several passengers who were injured. He suffered a burned right hand but was in stable condition, officials said.
Hundreds of residents and scores of soldiers swarmed around the still-smoldering helicopter wreckage, 100 meters, or 328 feet, from the Jhelum River. Part of the chopper's tail jutted above the crowd. At least four ambulances, sirens wailing, left the scene carrying injured people.
Abbas Gardezi, a local journalist, said he saw the helicopter hit the ground and then explode into flames. The weather was sunny and clear.
Arshad said only that an army helicopter made a crash landing in the Jhelum Valley due to a technical fault while en route to Muzaffarabad. "Four troops died and some were injured," he said.
Arshad said that the president had reached some other area when the chopper went down. He declined to say how close Musharraf had been to the crash.
"The president was in some other chopper and he safely reached where he had to go," he said.
Two suspected Al Qaeda fighters and a dozen villagers were among about 80 people killed in fierce fighting between soldiers and militants in northwest Pakistan, an official said Monday, according to The Associated Press in Miran Shah, Pakistan.
Waheed Arshad, the army spokesman, said that about 60 suspected militants and 20 soldiers died in two major clashes on Sunday in the North Waziristan region, a militant stronghold near the Afghan border.
A security official in Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, said on Monday that two Arabs who were low-ranking Al Qaeda men, and an Uzbek, died in the second battle in an area called Malagam.
Pervez Musharraf in 2002.
An AS-332L2 Super Puma. 
At least four people have died after one of three military escort helicopters accompanying 
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf crashed in Kashmir.

The medium-lift Super Puma helicopter was shadowing one carrying the president when the rear of the rotorcraft burst into flame, forcing an emergency crash landing. An army brigadier, two soldiers and a PTV cameraman were killed, and four more were injured, including presidential spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi. The injured are being treated at a hospital in Muzaffarabad. The pilot walked away unharmed.

It is thought to be an accident caused by a technical fault.

The helicopters were visiting the scene of a devastating 2005 earthquake to mark the anniversary of the disaster. The president ultimately reached his destination.