Afghan passenger plane crashes with 44 on board

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Managing Director of Rupali Bank Limited M Farid Uddin speaking at the Barisal Division Conference-2012 held at BDS conference hall in Barisal recently. Deputy Managing Director Sheikh Ahmed also spoke at the conference, among others.

KABUL, May 17 (AP): An Afghan passenger plane carrying 44 people, including six foreigners, crashed Monday in a mountainous northern region where poor weather was hampering efforts to locate it, officials said. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Rescuers were on their way to the crash site near the 12,700-foot (3,800-metre) -high Salang Pass, a major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north. The plane, on a flight from the northern city of Kunduz, went down about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Kabul, said Kabul International Airport Police Chief Mohammad Asif Jabar Khil.
Zemeri Bashary, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said the plane was operated by Pamir Airways, a private Afghan airline. He said the Afghan government asked NATO for assistance.
NATO said a manned fixed-wing aircraft had been dispatched to the last known position of the missing plane but poor weather was hampering the aerial search.