Mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara declared dead

F.P. Report

GILGIT: After 13 days since the porter-cum-mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara went missing on K2, the Gilgit Baltistan authorities have confirmed that Ali Sadpara is no more alive, on Thursday.

This was announced by Gilgit Baltistan Information and Planning Minister Fatehullah Khan, who was briefing the media after the cabinet meeting, along with Muhammad Ali Sadpara son Sajid Ali Sadpara, GB Finance Minister Javed Ali Manwa, GB Food Advisor Shams Lone and others.

Sajid Ali Sadpara said, “I and many international climbers are convinced that the accident happened when my father and two other climbers were coming back after climbing K2.” “My family and the entire Pakistani nation and our mountaineer friends are going through constant trauma and distress.

The love shown by the Pakistani nation has been a source of great encouragement and courage for my family,” Sajid Sadpara said. “My family has lost a very kind father,” his son said in a sober voice. Sajid said his father was a patriotic person who loved green crescent flag to the point of madness. He vowed to continue Muhammad Ali Sadpara mission fulfil his father’s unfulfilled dreams.

He thanked the Virtual and Physical Base Camp at K2 set up to review the rescue operation. On February 5, Muhammad Ali Sadpara and climbers from Iceland and Chile went missing while climbing the world second tallest mountain K2. 

Sajid Ali Sadpara thanked Pakistan Army for spearheading the difficult rescue and search operation and utilizing all possible resources to find his father in harsh weather conditions.   

He appealed that Prime Minister Imran Khan and COAS Qamar Javed Bajwa to fulfil Muhammad Ali Sadpara dream of setting up International level Climbing School in Sadpara.      

WHO WAS ALI SADPARA?

Muhammad Ali Sadpara will be remembered as a versatile climber by the international community of mountaineers, and a hero in his native Pakistan. He is the only Pakistani to have climbed eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, and he made the first-ever winter ascent of the world’s ninth highest peak, Nanga Parbat.

On Friday 5 February he went missing along with two others – Iceland’s John Snorri and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr – while trying to climb K2, the world’s second-highest peak at 8,611m (28,251 ft) and also reputedly the deadliest.

His son Sajid was also a member of the team and the idea was for the father-and-son duo to summit K2 without oxygen, a feat never done before in winter. But Sajid had to turn back from a spot called the Bottleneck – also known as the “death zone”, some 300 metres from the top – after he felt sick and came back.