ISLAMABAD: An Australian and a Canadian mountain climber died last week in northern Pakistan while attempting to scale K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, officials said Thursday.
The death of Matthew Eakin was announced by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which expressed its “condolences to his family and friends.” His body was found through drone video on Thursday.
A Pakistani mountaineering official and the Canadian Press said the body of Richard Cartier, who went missing in a separate incident on the same mountain on July 19, had finally also been spotted by a search team on K2. Cartier was 60 and an experienced climber.
K2, on the Chinese-Pakistani border in the Karakorum Range, has one of the deadliest records, with most climbers dying on the descent, where the slightest mistake can trigger an avalanche and become fatal. Only a few hundred have successfully reached its summit. In contrast, Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, has been summited more than 9,000 times.
Eakin’s devastated friends posted tributes on social media to honor him, saying his death was a huge loss to the mountaineering community. One friend, Felicity Symons, said about their 23 years of friendship: “I will always see your smile in the clouds. Rest easy my dear friend on the mountains you loved.”
Karrar Haidri, the deputy chief of the Pakistan Alpine Club, which coordinates search and rescue missions with Pakistan's government and military, confirmed the deaths of Eakin and Cartier.
“We extend our condolences to the friends and family members of the Australian and Canadian climbers who died on K2,” Haidri told The Associated Press.
Also last week, a third climber, Ali Akbar Sakki from Afghanistan, died on K2. Sakki suffered a heart attack while trying to scale the summit, Haidri said.
The Canadian Embassy in Islamabad did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Dawn, one of Pakistan's English-language newspapers, reported earlier this week that the two climbers had been spotted between Camp 1 and Camp 2 on K2 after they both went missing on July 19 in separate incidents.
K2 is also among the coldest and windiest of climbs. At places along the route, climbers must navigate nearly sheer rock faces rising 80 degrees, while avoiding frequent and unpredictable avalanches.
Australian, Canadian climbers die on Pakistan's K2
https://arab.news/wzz56
Australian, Canadian climbers die on Pakistan's K2
- The two climbers had been spotted between Camp 1 and Camp 2 after they both went missing on July 19
- K2 is among the coldest and windiest of climbs, with only a few hundred successfully reaching its summit
Pakistan’s Sharif congratulates Bangladesh PM hopeful on ‘resounding victory’ in election
- At 60, BNP’s Tarique Rahman is preparing to take charge of Bangladesh, driven by what he calls an ambition to ‘do better’
- The election comes nearly a year and half after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina in a deadly uprising in the South Asian nation
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday congratulated Tarique Rahman on the “resounding victory” of his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in parliamentary elections, saying that he looked forward to working closely with the new Bangladeshi leadership.
A year and a half after the deadly uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina’s iron-fisted regime, the BNP said they had a won a “sweeping victory” in parliamentary elections held on Thursday.
Final results are still to come, but the United States was swift to offer its congratulations to Rahman and the BNP for an “historic victory,” its embassy in Dhaka said.
At 60, BNP leader Rahman is preparing to take charge of the South Asian nation of 170 million people, driven by what he calls an ambition to “do better.”
“I extend my warmest felicitations to Mr. Tarique Rahman on leading the BNP to a resounding victory in the Parliamentary elections in Bangladesh,” Sharif said on X.
“I also congratulate the people of Bangladesh on the successful conduct of the elections.”
Sharif’s statement also comes amid Islamabad’s efforts to rebuild relations with Bangladesh, amid a thaw in relations between the two countries. Pakistan and Bangladesh were part of the same country until Bangladesh’s secession following a bloody civil war in 1971, an event that long cast a shadow over bilateral ties.
Both countries have moved closer since August 2024, following the ouster of Hasina who was considered an India ally. While Pakistan-Bangladesh ties warm up, relations between Dhaka and New Delhi remain strained over India’s decision to grant asylum to Hasina.
“I look forward to working closely with the new Bangladesh leadership to further strengthen our historic, brotherly multifaceted bilateral relations and advance our shared goals of peace, stability, and development in South Asia and beyond,” Sharif said.
