Efforts afoot to trace missing climbers

ISLAMABAD: The government and other stakeholders are still employing their best efforts to find Muhammad Ali Sadpara and two other foreign climbers who went missing nearly 10 days ago during a K2 summit expedition.
Sadpara’s management, which operates his official Twitter account, on Monday announced that a meeting of the apex committee regarding the missing climbers’ search and rescue (SAR) operation will be held on Feb 17, 2021, in Gilgit.
“Please avoid any premature statements and keep away from fake reports,” the management said.
In another tweet, Sadpara’s management apologised to the public for not providing frequent updates regarding the missing climbers on Sadpara’s official social media accounts, adding that the management team was “too focused on SAR efforts to pay attention to anything else.”
The management expressed its gratitude to people for their love and support but stressed how fake reports regarding the missing climbers caused distress to everyone related to Sadpara.
According to a press release issued by K2 Virtual and Physical Base Camp, an important press conference was also held on Monday to provide more information about Ali Sadpara and other missing climbers.
It had been reported that Sadpara and his team had successfully summited the 8,611-metre K2 — the world’s second-highest mountain — on Feb 5, a month after their first attempt failed. However, their support teams have since then cautioned that the climbers’ status is still unclear and there has been no communication from their end.
The K2 Virtual and Physical Base Camp team said that an “extraordinary search operation in the history of mountaineering” is underway on K2. They said that possible locations have been identified through satellite images. Information was also obtained through synthetic aperture radar technology, which has been used to identify sleeping bags and tents of the mountaineers.
“Please give these families time, space, compassion to the family of the missing climbers. Share your stories about them so they will be remembered,” read the press release.