A Pakistani airliner with 47 people aboard – including an acclaimed singer songwriter — crashed Wednesday in a remote mountainous region of the country shortly after take-off, according to reports.
Pop star turned evangelical Muslim Junaid Jamshed was aboard Pakistan International Airlines Flight PK-661, which plummeted after losing contact with the control tower en route from the city of Chitral to the capital of Islamabad, officials said.
A passenger manifest provided to The Post listed 42 passengers aboard — 31 males, nine females and two infants.
Jamshed , 52, was traveling with his wife, Nahya, and their three children, The Daily Pakistan reported.
Officials said 36 bodies had been recovered while rescue efforts continued in the rugged terrain, Geo TV reported.
“All of the bodies are burned beyond recognition. The debris is scattered,†Taj Muhammad Khan, a government official based in Havelian, told Reuters.
Khan said witnesses told him “the aircraft has crashed in a mountainous area, and before it hit the ground it was on fire.â€
A local resident said the fire still burned nearly two hours after the crash near the town of Havelian in the Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“They are removing body parts,†Nasim Gohar told Geo TV about rescuers.
Villagers also retrieved body parts from the wreckage, police official Ilyas Abbasi told AFP.
