ISLAMABAD: A team of porters assigned to recover Pakistani climber Dr. Asma Mushtaq’s body from Spantik mountain have temporarily halted their efforts due to challenging weather conditions, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Sunday, stressing that authorities will do their utmost to bring her body back. 

Dr. Mushtaq died while descending the 7,027-meter high Spantik mountain, the Alpine Club of Pakistan said in a statement on Thursday. The club said she had summited the mountain in good health but during her descent at approximately 6,400 meters, she suffered a “serious high-altitude medical emergency” that caused her death. 

Tarar wrote on social media platform X that the team of high-altitude porters were expected to reach Camp 3 at Spantik to retrieve Dr. Mushtaq’s body and bring it down to base camp by Monday. 

“The rescue team reached almost near Camp 3, but due to severe weather conditions, heavy snowfall, and strong winds, the team had to turn back and return to Camp 2,” he wrote.

Tarar said the government has authorized a helicopter to assist the porters, adding that the Gilgit-Baltistan government and the Force Command Northern Areas have coordinated with each other about the operation. 

The minister said that alternate arrangements are also in place to retrieve the body.

“Whatever can be done in these circumstances will be done,” he said. “Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is being kept updated on the situation.”

As per local media reports, Dr. Mushtaq was a UK-based doctor who had specialized in obstetrics and gynaecology. She was originally from the eastern city of Lahore.

The climber had completed a successful winter ascent of the 4,076-meter Musa ka Musallah peak located within the northwestern Mansehra district in Pakistan and was associated with expeditions to Rupal and Arandu. 

Mountaineering accidents are common in northern Pakistan, where climbers face hazards including avalanches, falling ice and rock, extreme altitude and rapidly changing weather.

In July, a ten-member team of international climbers were killed after they were caught in an avalanche at Pakistan’s Broad Peak mountain.