Senior Sri Lankan minister and leader of Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC) M H M Ashraff was killed along with 14 others when an MI-17 Air Force helicopter carrying them crashed in the mountain jungles of central Sri Lanka on Saturday.
Top Sri Lankan Police officials said that rescue teams, which reached the spot after the crash confirmed that there were no survivors and Ashraff's family had been officially informed about his death.
Earlier army spokesman Brig. Sanath Karunaratne said that search teams so far recovered nine charred bodies. “It is highly unlikely that Ashraff survived the crash,” he said.
He said that besides Ashraff, the dead included nine of Ashraff's supporters and five crew members.
The wreckage of the helicopter was strewn around a vast area near Aranayake in north central Kegalle district.
Ashraff's death was seen as a major blow to President Chandrika Kumaratunga ahead of the October 10 parliamentary polls as he was one of her strong allies.
Ashraff, who was the minister for ports, left this morning along with nine of his supporters from Colombo to his native eastern Ampara district, which has strong pockets of Tamil-speaking Muslim population.
The air force, however, refused to speculate about the cause of the crash. The chopper reportedly crashed in the jungle beyond Aranayake. Search teams have also gone from the nearby areas to locate the wreckage of the chopper.
Reports from the area where it crashed said that a large part of forest was burnt around the crash-site.
Bureau Report
