A mass funeral is held for 22 Pakistani soldiers who died in a helicopter crash in Kashmir

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Rescuers recovered the remains of all 22 soldiers aboard a military helicopter that crashed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir the previous day, officials said Thursday, confirming there were no survivors, as senior government and military officials attended a mass funeral for the victims.

The helicopter crashed Wednesday in Muzaffarabad, the regional capital, apparently because of a technical fault, according to Pakistan’s military. An investigation is underway to determine the exact cause.

An Associated Press reporter counted 22 coffins draped in Pakistan’s national flag at a funeral ceremony.

Witnesses and regional officials said the remains of the soldiers were recovered from the badly burned wreckage. The dead included a colonel and two army majors, according to two security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Among those attending the funerals was regional Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore.

According to the officials, the soldiers had been traveling to carry out security duties after a call for a march on Muzaffarabad by the Joint Awami Action Committee, a recently banned alliance of various groups.

Authorities have not indicated any connection between the planned protest and the crash.

Pakistan has deployed additional security forces across the region, where tensions have been high since the weekend after members of an outlawed group attacked police and security personnel, killing four officers.

Military helicopter crashes are not uncommon in Pakistan.

In September, an army helicopter on a routine flight crashed in northern Pakistan, killing two pilots and three technicians.

Military officers and civilians attend the funeral prayers of military personnel, killed in Wednesday's helicopter crash, during a funeral prayer, in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/M.D. Mughal)

Military officers and civilians attend the funeral prayers of military personnel, killed in Wednesday's helicopter crash, during a funeral prayer, in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/M.D. Mughal)

Military officers and civilians attend the funeral prayers of military personnel, killed in Wednesday's helicopter crash, during a funeral prayer, in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/M.D. Mughal)

Army soldiers carry a flag-wrapped casket of military personnel, killed in the Wednesday's helicopter crashed, during a funeral prayer, in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/M.D. Mughal)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is visiting the Canary Islands on Thursday to draw attention to the plight of migrants who risk their lives every year trying to reach Europe, fulfilling a wish of Pope Francis to visit one of the epicenters of the European migration debate.

Leo is spending the final two days of his weeklong trip to Spain in the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago closer to Africa than the Iberian Peninsula and a key point of entry for migrants smuggled from West Africa.

He is meeting with recently arrived migrants and representatives of the church and humanitarian organizations that care for them and work to integrate them into Spanish society.

Most poignantly, he will commemorate the thousands of lives lost at sea from a port that in 2020 became known as the “dock of shame” because of the squalid conditions migrants lived in when they came ashore during a spike in arrivals.

Spain’s Socialist-led government, which had been shamed by the 2020 crisis, has bucked a trend in Europe and the United States by defending immigration on economic and humanitarian grounds. It launched a legalization push earlier this year for hundreds of thousands of immigrants without authorization.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has highlighted the benefits to the economy with an aging workforce and low birth rate.

Leo has already called for strengthened international efforts to prevent the smuggling of migrants, the creation of safe pathways for them to move legally and development in countries of origin so more people can choose to stay home.

In a speech to the Spanish Parliament earlier this week, the first-ever by a pope, Leo demanded welcome and integration for those who do choose to flee, insisting on their inherent human dignity.

“The moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect and love those lives that are most fragile,” Leo said in a speech that also upheld the inherent dignity of the unborn, the elderly and sick. He received a 7-minute standing ovation at the end.

Migrant arrivals in the Canary Islands peaked in 2024 at nearly 47,000, but have fallen dramatically, with just over 3,000 people landing there in the first five months of 2026.

Upon his arrival in Las Palmas, Leo was to head to Arguineguin, where in 2020 arrivals reached such numbers that migrants were forced to sleep in makeshift camps in the open air on a dock that became known as the “dock of shame.”

Many migrants were left to sleep for weeks with just a blanket and no showers. Potential asylum seekers had no proper access to legal advice and some people were held for weeks, much longer than the three days that the law allowed. The ombudsman later forced the government to shutter the makeshift camp and relocate the migrants.

Learning of the crisis, Francis had planned to visit the Canary Islands to bring his solidarity, but never managed the trip. Francis had made the plight of refugees a hallmark of his papacy, following the Gospel mandate to “welcome the stranger.”

Leo has followed suit, insisting especially on the dignity of migrants in his native United States amid the Trump administration’s crackdown and mass deportation program.

Next month, on July 4, the American pope will spend U.S. Independence Day on the island of Lampedusa, Sicily, another main point of entry for migrants smuggled from North Africa trying to reach Europe.

Francis had visited Lampedusa in 2013, on his first trip outside Rome, and tossed a wreath into the Mediterranean in honor of the thousands of migrants who died in the perilous crossing. It was on that trip that he coined a phrase that became a mantra during his pontificate denouncing the “globalization of indifference” that the world showed migrants.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech as he meets with members of the Spanish Parliament at the Congress of Deputies, in Madrid, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV leaves at the end of a meeting with faithful and members of the diocesan charity and welfare organizations in the Church of Sant Agusti in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026 (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV waves as he arrives to celebrate Mass at the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)