ISLAMABAD: Famous Pakistani pop star, social worker and politician Abral ul Haq said on Monday he would build a school in the village of Muhammad Ali Sadpara, a Pakistani climber who went missing on the world’s second highest mountain, K2, on February 5. 

Sadpara, 45, one of Pakistan’s most celebrated climbers, John Snorri, 47, of Iceland, and Juan Pablo Mohr, 33, of Chile, were last seen ten days ago around noon at what is considered the most difficult part of the climb: the Bottleneck, a steep and narrow gully just 300 meters shy of the 8,611 meter (28,251 ft) high K2.

The spot is just above the ceiling of helicopters, which have been searching on and off, due to bad weather, since the climbers went missing. 

“I have just heard the news that Muhammad Ali Sadpara wanted to build a school in his village after his mission,” Haq wrote on Twitter. “Therefore we have decided to fulfil his dream and InshAllah a school will be built in the village of our hero in his memory.”

I have just heard the news that Muhammad Ali Sadpara wanted to build a school in his village after his mission therefore we have decided to fulfil his dream and Inshahallah a school will be built in the village of our hero in his memory.#muhammadalisadpara pic.twitter.com/0A2X6eJOZg

— Abrar Ul Haq (@AbrarUlHaqPK) February 15, 2021

Sadpara was born in the village of Sadpara, on the outskirts of Skardu city, in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region. He was part of the team that successfully achieved the first ever winter summit of Nanga Parbat in 2016. 

Haq is the founder and chairman of the Sahara for Life Trust, a non-profit charitable organization that has been providing health and education services to the people of Narowal and surrounding areas since 1998. 

This January, a team of climbers from Nepal became the first mountaineers to successfully complete a winter attempt on the summit of K2. 

Located on the Pakistan China border, K2 is the only mountain over 8,000 meters that had not been summitted in the winter — until this year.

First climbed in 1954 by Italian Achille Compagnoni, K2 is notorious for its sleep slopes and high winds, and in winter its surface becomes slick ice. Of the 367 people that had completed its ascent by 2018, 86 had died. The Pakistani military is regularly called in to rescue climbers using helicopters, but the weather often makes that difficult.

Sadpara and his expedition members were making their second attempt at climbing K2 this winter in a season that has already seen three other climbers die in the area.