ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani climber was killed and Italian and Pakistani members of the same expedition were injured after being caught in an avalanche on a mountain in remote northern Pakistan, a mountaineering group said Tuesday.
Pakistan’s Alpine Club said the incident took place Monday when four Italian and three Pakistani mountaineers were descending a peak in the Ishkoman Valley. Pakistan’s military was dispatching a helicopter to rescue the climbers, who have multiple injuries, it said.
The four Italian climbers involved are expedition leader Tarcisio Bellò, Luca Morellato, David Bergamin and Tino Toldo.
Italian Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo confirmed Monday’s incident happened in the northern district of Ghizar, but gave no further details. The Alpine Club statement said the details involving the incident were still sketchy.
In a separate incident Monday, two Chinese mountaineers have been reported missing in another area in northern Pakistan, said Karrar Haidri, secretary of the Alpine Club.
He said Pakistani authorities were trying to dispatch a helicopter to trace and rescue them.
Haidri said he was confident that the body of the Pakistani mountaineer and injured Italian and Pakistani mountaineers would be brought to the base camp by helicopter and that all arrangements were in place to send them to a nearby hospital.
“I am sure the army helicopter will fly today despite harsh weather,” he told The Associated Press.
Earlier, a Pakistani tour operator who arranged the expedition, Ashraf Aman, said volunteers from the area were trying to reach the exact area where the stranded mountaineers were waiting for the help.
Mountaineers from across the world travel to Pakistan every year to try scaling its high northern mountain ranges. Harsh weather and conditions often prove a test for the most experienced of climbers.
Earlier this year, two European climbers — Italian Daniele Nardi and Briton Tom Ballard — were killed during bad winter weather on Nanga Parbat, which is the world’s ninth-tallest mountain at 8,126 meters (26,660 feet).
Nardi, from near Rome, had attempted to scale Nanga Parbat in winter several times. Ballard’s disappearance hit his homeland particularly hard as he is the son of Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to scale Mount Everest alone.
She died at age 33 descending the summit of K2.
Pakistani climber killed, Italians injured by avalanche
Pakistani climber killed, Italians injured by avalanche
- Military was dispatching a helicopter to rescue the climbers
- Mountaineers were descending a peak in the Ishkoman Valley
Pakistan opposition to meet today as Imran Khan’s party rejects prison medical exam
- Pakistan government conducted ex-PM Imran Khan’s medical examination in jail on Sunday over reports of his deteriorating eye condition
- Khan’s family, PTI party have rejected the examination, saying that neither his family nor former premier’s doctors were invited to check-up
Islamabad: An alliance of opposition parties will meet today, Monday, to determine its future course of action after former prime minister Imran Khan’s family and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party rejected a medical examination of the former premier conducted by the government, a spokesperson of the alliance confirmed.
The superintendent of Adiala Jail, where Khan is incarcerated, said a team of expert doctors from various hospitals conducted a detailed examination of his eye on Sunday. The examination was held days after a lawyer, who was asked by the top court to visit Khan at the jail earlier this month to assess his living conditions, submitted a report in the Supreme Court. The report said the 73-year-old had suffered severe vision loss in his right eye due to central retinal vein occlusion, and that he was left with only 15 percent sight in the affected eye.
Khan’s PTI party and family have dismissed the medical examination, protesting that the government had carried it out without inviting the former premier’s family members or his personal doctors.
“Opposition will meet during the next few hours to discuss the future line of action,” Sheikh Waqas Akram, the PTI’s central information secretary, told Arab News.
“We reject the examination that has been conducted in the absence of family or their nominated doctor.”
He said that while Khan’s family members and doctors were informed of the medical examination, “disallowing our doctor and family is aimed at hiding the truth.”
Akram said the government had rejected the family’s request for Khan’s sister Dr. Uzma Khan or Dr. Nausherwan Burki, a prominent physician based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to be present during the check-up.
He said Khan’s sisters and Dr. Burki will hold a press conference on Tuesday to apprise the media about the latest situation.
Separately in a video statement, Khan’s physician Dr. Aasim Yousaf said he spoke to the two doctors who were treating the former premier at Adiala Jail on Sunday via a conference call. He said that as per their latest assessment, Khan had shown “significant improvement” due to the treatment and that his vision “had improved significantly as well.”
“I would be extremely happy if I was able to confirm that this was the case,” Dr. Yousaf said. “Unfortunately, because I have not seen him myself and have not been able to participate in his care or to talk to him, I’m unable to either confirm or deny the veracity of what we have been told.”
Dr. Yousaf appealed to the authorities to either allow him or Dr. Faisal Sultan, CEO of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Center, to care for Khan at the central prison in Rawalpindi. He also appealed to authorities to carry out Khan’s further treatment at Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad.
Hussain Ahmad Yousafzai, a spokesperson of the Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayin-e-Pakistan alliance, also confirmed that members of parliament from the opposition alliance are meeting to discuss the future course of action today.
“The opposition meeting is going to discuss future line of action as our demand for moving Imran Khan to Al-Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad and treating him in front of the family has not been fulfilled,” Yousafzai said.
’NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT’
Speaking to lawyers in the eastern city of Ferozewala, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said one of Khan’s eyes has around 70 percent vision with corrective glasses, while the other has “normal” 6/6 vision.
“The latest report being discussed today has been re-examined as per the Supreme Court’s order,” he said. “There is nothing to worry about.”
Separately, the Supreme Court disposed off a petition by PTI lawyers on Monday, saying that the court’s concerns about Khan’s living conditions in jail had been addressed.
“As evident from the above, the petitioner has generally expressed satisfaction with the prevailing conditions of his confinement and has not raised any concerns necessitating accommodations beyond the existing level of care,” a copy of the order seen by Arab News reads.
It added that both the reports by the Supreme Court’s appointed lawyer and the government’s team corroborated this fact, which was reinforced by assurances provided by the attorney general of Pakistan.
Opposition members have gathered outside the parliament building in Islamabad and staged a sit-in protest since Friday over health concerns regarding Khan. Reports of Khan’s eye ailment have also triggered road closures in several parts of KP.
PTI Peshawar President Saleem Irfan said major roads remained blocked on Monday, including the Peshawar–Islamabad Motorway at Swabi’s Anbar Interchange, Khairabad Bridge linking Punjab with the northwestern province, the Dera Ismail Khan–Bhakkar Road, Lakki Marwat–Mianwali Road, the Hazara Motorway at the Abbottabad–Havelian Interchange, Kohat–Pindi Road near Khushal Garh, and sections of the Karakoram Highway in Upper Kohistan.
“We will continue to block these points until our demand is accepted,” he said.
