President Jokowi Offers Condolences Over Envoy's Demise

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has expressed his deepest condolences over the demise of Indonesian Ambassador to Pakistan Burhan Muhammad in Singapore, early Tuesday morning.

"May the deceased get a good place on the side of Allah, and the bereaved families gain strength in the face of this ordeal," President Jokowi stated before the start of the plenary cabinet meeting at the presidential office on Tuesday.

 Burhan Muhammad passed away in Singapore's General Hospital, on Tuesday, at 0:15 a.m. local time, after suffering serious burn injuries caused by a helicopter crash in Pakistan, on May 8.

Jokowi said the body of Ambassador Muhammad will arrive in Jakarta from Singapore on Tuesday afternoon and will be laid in state at the Foreign Ministry's Pancasila building to allow the public to pay their respects to the deceased before the funeral ceremony.

Ambassador Muhammad is survived by his two sons, while his wife Hery Listyawati Burhan Muhammad was killed on board the ill-fated helicopter, which crashed in Pakistan.

The crash in the mountainous area of Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan killed seven people, including the wife of the Indonesian ambassador, the wife of the Malaysian ambassador to Pakistan, the Filipino ambassador, and the Norwegian ambassador.        

Three Pakistani crewmen were also killed, and several diplomats were injured when the Mi-17 helicopter crashed into a school in a valley lined by pine forests and overlooked by snow-capped mountains. No children were present in the school premises at the time of the crash. (WDY)