ISLAMABAD: Pakistan yesterday suspended expeditions on its second-highest peak, evacuating climbers from Nanga Parbat after nine foreign tourists and a local guide were shot dead by Islamist gunmen at a base camp the previous day.
“We are shocked, traumatised and angery. Pakistan is known in the mountaineering community. These people were killed for no reason,” said Manzoor Hussain, President of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.
Around 40 remaining climbers have been evacuated to the northern city of Gilgit with treks on the peak now unsafe, he said. “They have been informed of the incident. We are reviewing the security situation. The fallout apparently will be serious.” He said there would be no further expeditions this summer and requests for winter climbs would be subject to security review. “This season is over for them.”
Expeditions on other peaks in Pakistan higher than 8,000 metres, including K2, the world’s second highest mountain, would continue as the army is in these areas, he said. Police said that a massive operation is under way to track down the suspects.
Meanwhile, a group of Russian climbers has requested Russia to evacuate them.
“We have contacted the Russian emergencies ministry [with the request]. Our Ukrainian, Georgian and Lithuanian colleagues are set to ask the Russian Foreign Ministry and [its head Sergei Lavrov] to evacuate survivors and bodies by plane next week,” Russian Mountaineering Federation Executive Director Alexei Ovchinnikov said.
According to reports, five Ukrainians, three Chinese and a Lithuanian were killed. The federation said no Russians were among the victims.
He said that initial reports that a Russian was killed were not confirmed by Russian mountaineer teams.
“We contacted our teams via a satellite phone. So far, they say that all Russians there are unharmed. They are yet to be evacuated from a camp near the site of the attack, and from a gorge nearby,” he said.
He said that the number of Russians is yet to be determined. According to him, three groups of Russian climbers have flown to Pakistan recently: One is guarded by Pakistani servicemen, the second has no armed guards and the third has just arrived in Islamabad.
The Russian embassy, however, said it had not received any request to evacuate Russian climbers from Gilgit-Baltistan in the north.
It said there were no grounds for sending additional aircraft to the area as the group of Russian tourists was small.
The killings have delivered a major blow to foreign expeditions, which provide the last vestige of international tourism in a country on the frontline of Al Qaeda and Taliban violence. Agencies
