Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry has said that the Pakistan Army had followed strict security protocol to protect the crashed helicopter that was carrying diplomats to inspect a tourism project in Gilgit on Friday.
Seven people, including the ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines and the wives of the Malaysian and Indonesian ambassadors, died in the crash, reports said.
Pakistan's military has brought the bodies of two ambassadors and the wives of two ambassadors' to Islamabad on Saturday
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the tragic incident, but witnesses on the ground are saying that they did not hear any firing.
"The Pakistan Army provided security and top class security was provided. There were different circles of security. Over a thousand troops were deployed and all heights were covered. Therefore, all those who are making a claim is not correct. It was a technical failure, a technical fault, because of which, this incident happened," Chaudhry said.
Earlier, the spokesman of the Inter-Services Public Relations Division of the Pakistan Armed Forces, Major General Asim Bajwa used his Twitter handle to confirm that a technical fault was responsible for the crash.
Norwegian Ambassador Leif Larsen, Philippine Ambassador Domingo Lucenario and the wives of the ambassadors of Malaysia and Indonesia were killed, along with two pilots and a crew member, military spokesman Asim Bajwa said in Twitter posts.
Gilgit is about 250 kilometers north of Islamabad.
"According to the information we have, the Polish ambassador has suffered from a spine injury, and his spouse has sustained head injuries, but the injuries are not critical. The Dutch ambassador has suffered leg and face burns. His condition is not critical either. He has reportedly suffered from some head injury. The Indonesian ambassador has suffered 75 percent burns, according to the medical staff at the CMH (Combined Military Hospital), Gilgit and is in a critical condition. The Malaysian High Commissioner has suffered burns on shoulder and face. He is also not in a critical condition," media quoted Chaudhry, as saying at a briefing on Friday.
The ambassadors of South Africa, Lebanon and Romania were also on board.
The dead and injured are expected to be brought to Islamabad on Saturday.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was travelling to Gilgit on a separate aircraft to lay the foundation of the skiing project, has returned to Islamabad, his office said.
Officials in Gilgit who had arranged the three-day diplomatic excursion, were shocked by the events that unfolded.
Syed Hadi Hussain, Secretary of Tourism for Gilgit Baltistan, said they had scrapped all events connected with the programme, and would be observing a day of mourning on Saturday.
"The crash occurred after 11 hours of flying following regular servicing," a military official said at Foreign Office briefing.
The ill-fated chopper had been in service of Pakis-tan Army Aviation since 2002.
Army's Aviation wing had started using the Russian made Mi-17 transport helicopters in late nineties. Mi-17s are considered as Pakistan Army Aviation's reliable workhorses. The United States helped Pakistan refurbish and overhaul 22 of the Mi-17s.
Four Mi-17 choppers have crashed during the past decade.
The Pakistan military was believed to operate about 29 Mi-17s and the air force about six.
