Missing mountaineer Ali Sadpara declared dead

Missing mountaineers Ali Sadpara and his companions John Snorri from Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr from Chile have been declared dead by Gilgit-Baltistan Government on Thursday.

The GB Tourism Minister Raja Nasir Ali Khan held a press conference and said that keeping in mind the weather conditions at K2, Pakistan Army, government and family of the mountaineer have reached the conclusion that Ali Sadpara and his comrades have expired.

The minister said, “Government pays tribute to the services of national hero Ali Sadpara, and he will be given civil award along with his son Sajid Sadpara. A mountaineering school will be established in the name of Ali Sadpara.

“The federal government has been recommended to attribute Skardu Airport to Ali Sadpara. The mountaineer’s children will be given educational scholarships and his family will be provided financial and moral assistance. A law will be made for the families of the victim climbers.”

Meanwhile, Ali Sadpara‘s son, Sajid Sadpara, in Skardu. “I will keep my father’s mission alive and fulfil his dream,” he said. 

Sajid thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the courageous pilots of the Askari Aviation for conducting a thorough search and rescue operation amid the harsh weather for his father.

Sadpara, Iceland’s John Snorri and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr had departed for their journey on February 3 after Sadpara’s birthday, asking fans and admirers to pray for them.

The trio was attempting to reach the 8,611-meter (28,251 foot) Korakarum-2 summit, commonly known as K-2, without supplemental oxygen to make history. They, however, lost contact with the base camp when they were only 411 meters away from the snow-capped top.

Born in 1976 in a remote Sadpara village in Skurdu district of the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, which borders neighbouring China, Sadpara was the only Pakistani to have scaled eight peaks measuring above 8,000 meters – five in Pakistan and three in Nepal.

Adding another feather to his hat, he climbed 8,126-meter (26,660 feet) Nanga Parbat, also known as the “killer mountain” located in Gilgit-Baltistan without oxygen in 2016.