TTP Murdered 11 foreign mountaineers at Nanga Parbat base camp.
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muse
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Terror in Gilgit-Baltistan indicates more trouble
By Ejaz Haider
Published: June 25, 2013
The writer is Editor, National Security Affairs at Capital TV and a visiting fellow at the SDPI in Islamabad
The June 23 incident at the western base camp of Nanga Parbat, in which nine foreign tourists and their local guide were gratuitously killed, raises many questions.
Reports indicate the area has been cordoned off and search parties are scouring all possible approaches to and away from the base camp. Aerial surveillance is being conducted, local community leaders have been co-opted and suspects have been rounded up. The surviving guide and a Chinese trekker are also being questioned for any clues.
So, who were the people who mounted this attack? Going by the local reaction to the terrible incident, it is difficult to assume they were locals, even as facilitation by some among the local population cannot be discounted. That said, it is clear, given the terrain and the gruelling trek that the attackers were acclimatised to operate in rarefied air conditions.
The area in and around Chilas — also some other parts of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) — has a history of sectarian violence. Since 2005, there have been at least three incidents of targeted sectarian killings in which Shia passengers were forced out of buses, lined up and killed. The latest attack was only last year, in much the same way as the minibus incident on a cold January evening in Northern Ireland, narrated by Seamus Heaney in his Nobel lecture, Crediting Poetry. Except that there is no Heaney here to narrate the harrowing tales that have become all too common in our beloved land.
But while sectarian terror has visited the area on many occasions, the question remains: why would sectarian terrorists target a group of foreign tourists? It can’t be because of denominational differences. Also, as it seems, mounting this attack required a long trek. Moreover, at the time of the incident, reportedly, there were other trekkers and mountaineers in the area too. Almost all have since been evacuated.
What was the attacking group’s extrication plan? The place where the attack happened is not a built-in area. No one can kill anyone and then walk over to another street to have coffee. Chances are the group split up in smaller two- to three-man teams for extrication. What did they do with the weapons? It’s unlikely they carried the weapons when extricating, except possibly handguns that can be easily concealed. Did they conceal the weapons somewhere close by? Could it be that they picked up the weapons after the trek to the point and before killing the tourists? If so, then the weapons got to the designated spot before the group did. Who carried the weapons to that point? Were there local facilitators?
Reports suggest there were 10 to 14 attackers. Why would, whoever planned the attack, need such a large group when three to four trained people with automatic weapons would be enough to kill a dozen unarmed men caught by surprise? How could such a large body of armed men go undetected in an area where there’s a large, covert and overt presence of intelligence personnel and their informers, and non-locals can be fairly easily picked up — unless they moved to a pre-designated rendezvous in small groups.
Could it be that the number of attackers was much less than what is being reported? It makes more sense, both for the purposes of attacking and extricating, to keep the group small. Detection is more difficult and concealing movement can be relatively easy. Weapons can be carried, field-stripped and then assembled before the attack. They can either be hidden after the attack or destroyed. This was not a suicide mission so it must have had an extrication plan.
Still, regardless of any theories, the issue of motive remains. Looters don’t trek long distances to pick up backpacks and money, unless they chance upon a target. According to one police report, the attackers did not touch the victims’ belongings.
Is the motive then to destroy the economy of the area? Is it to open a new front for the government and turn the relatively calm but strategically very sensitive G-B into another hotbed of extremist terrorism? If it is the latter, the former being just a spin-off of it, then we should see more attacks on both soft and hard targets. If such a scenario comes to pass, it will put terrible pressure on security forces, primarily elements of the Force Command Northern Areas (FCNA). If the FCNA troops have to get involved in an internal low-intensity conflict (LIC), the Command will be spread thin and will either have to induct more troops dealing with the LIC or take the pressure on its primary role which is to defend against India along a very difficult Line of Control as well as along the western ridges of the Saltoro Range. The Karakoram Highway could also come under threat and the Road Maintenance Battalions will either need additional troops for local protection or increase their own components for such protection to fulfil their primary role.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has taken responsibility for the attack and claims a group under its banner is now operating in the area. One report suggests the involvement of the Asmatullah Moavia group which, for some time, has linked up with local sectarian groups. There is a strong possibility of this and we are told the security teams are following up on these leads.
No matter how one looks at it, unless there is an off chance of this incident being an isolated aberration, which is highly unlikely, the government, the intelligence agencies and the army should brace for more trouble. This is why it is absolutely crucial that the terrorists who mounted this attack are hunted down and captured. If this was a planned operation and the beginning of more to come, getting these criminals is a must not just to show the state’s resolve in dealing with what has happened but also in unravelling any bigger strategic plan to destabilise the area.
I have said before but it bears repeating: sectarian terrorists form a major component of the TTP whose ideology is essentially sectarian and rabidly anti-Shia. Those who think that sectarian terrorism and the TTP are different phenomena, and while one must be put down and the other talked to, are either dissemblers or hopeless fools.
By Ejaz Haider
Published: June 25, 2013
The writer is Editor, National Security Affairs at Capital TV and a visiting fellow at the SDPI in Islamabad
The June 23 incident at the western base camp of Nanga Parbat, in which nine foreign tourists and their local guide were gratuitously killed, raises many questions.
Reports indicate the area has been cordoned off and search parties are scouring all possible approaches to and away from the base camp. Aerial surveillance is being conducted, local community leaders have been co-opted and suspects have been rounded up. The surviving guide and a Chinese trekker are also being questioned for any clues.
So, who were the people who mounted this attack? Going by the local reaction to the terrible incident, it is difficult to assume they were locals, even as facilitation by some among the local population cannot be discounted. That said, it is clear, given the terrain and the gruelling trek that the attackers were acclimatised to operate in rarefied air conditions.
The area in and around Chilas — also some other parts of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) — has a history of sectarian violence. Since 2005, there have been at least three incidents of targeted sectarian killings in which Shia passengers were forced out of buses, lined up and killed. The latest attack was only last year, in much the same way as the minibus incident on a cold January evening in Northern Ireland, narrated by Seamus Heaney in his Nobel lecture, Crediting Poetry. Except that there is no Heaney here to narrate the harrowing tales that have become all too common in our beloved land.
But while sectarian terror has visited the area on many occasions, the question remains: why would sectarian terrorists target a group of foreign tourists? It can’t be because of denominational differences. Also, as it seems, mounting this attack required a long trek. Moreover, at the time of the incident, reportedly, there were other trekkers and mountaineers in the area too. Almost all have since been evacuated.
What was the attacking group’s extrication plan? The place where the attack happened is not a built-in area. No one can kill anyone and then walk over to another street to have coffee. Chances are the group split up in smaller two- to three-man teams for extrication. What did they do with the weapons? It’s unlikely they carried the weapons when extricating, except possibly handguns that can be easily concealed. Did they conceal the weapons somewhere close by? Could it be that they picked up the weapons after the trek to the point and before killing the tourists? If so, then the weapons got to the designated spot before the group did. Who carried the weapons to that point? Were there local facilitators?
Reports suggest there were 10 to 14 attackers. Why would, whoever planned the attack, need such a large group when three to four trained people with automatic weapons would be enough to kill a dozen unarmed men caught by surprise? How could such a large body of armed men go undetected in an area where there’s a large, covert and overt presence of intelligence personnel and their informers, and non-locals can be fairly easily picked up — unless they moved to a pre-designated rendezvous in small groups.
Could it be that the number of attackers was much less than what is being reported? It makes more sense, both for the purposes of attacking and extricating, to keep the group small. Detection is more difficult and concealing movement can be relatively easy. Weapons can be carried, field-stripped and then assembled before the attack. They can either be hidden after the attack or destroyed. This was not a suicide mission so it must have had an extrication plan.
Still, regardless of any theories, the issue of motive remains. Looters don’t trek long distances to pick up backpacks and money, unless they chance upon a target. According to one police report, the attackers did not touch the victims’ belongings.
Is the motive then to destroy the economy of the area? Is it to open a new front for the government and turn the relatively calm but strategically very sensitive G-B into another hotbed of extremist terrorism? If it is the latter, the former being just a spin-off of it, then we should see more attacks on both soft and hard targets. If such a scenario comes to pass, it will put terrible pressure on security forces, primarily elements of the Force Command Northern Areas (FCNA). If the FCNA troops have to get involved in an internal low-intensity conflict (LIC), the Command will be spread thin and will either have to induct more troops dealing with the LIC or take the pressure on its primary role which is to defend against India along a very difficult Line of Control as well as along the western ridges of the Saltoro Range. The Karakoram Highway could also come under threat and the Road Maintenance Battalions will either need additional troops for local protection or increase their own components for such protection to fulfil their primary role.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has taken responsibility for the attack and claims a group under its banner is now operating in the area. One report suggests the involvement of the Asmatullah Moavia group which, for some time, has linked up with local sectarian groups. There is a strong possibility of this and we are told the security teams are following up on these leads.
No matter how one looks at it, unless there is an off chance of this incident being an isolated aberration, which is highly unlikely, the government, the intelligence agencies and the army should brace for more trouble. This is why it is absolutely crucial that the terrorists who mounted this attack are hunted down and captured. If this was a planned operation and the beginning of more to come, getting these criminals is a must not just to show the state’s resolve in dealing with what has happened but also in unravelling any bigger strategic plan to destabilise the area.
I have said before but it bears repeating: sectarian terrorists form a major component of the TTP whose ideology is essentially sectarian and rabidly anti-Shia. Those who think that sectarian terrorism and the TTP are different phenomena, and while one must be put down and the other talked to, are either dissemblers or hopeless fools.
krash
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And who's help was it that got you rid of these scum?
The guide was arrested!
Surprising that the terrorists killed one guide but tied up and gagged 2 other guides. Why didn't they kill all witnesses?
The lone Chinese survivor and guides would reveal some info...
By all measure this was a targeted hit aiming at a specific purpose. It was made a point to kill the foreigners alone and exactly at the place where they were killed. Wouldn't be surprised if the Pakistani guide was shot for resisting.
Say what!?!
Probably dumped a short way off.
Nope.
You know that's a political advert there on the stone? Much like the idiotic and illegal political slogans on random people's house's walls and the sides of Minar-e-Pakistan. BTW it's only white wash, you can wash it off with some soap and water. Geez! Talk about desperate exaggeration...
Now people will slap us when we will tell them Pakistanis are hospitable & mehmaannawaz.
Totally, mehmaannawazi ki tou dhaggiyaan urha dein aaj.This may be the most embarrassing day in the history of Pakistan. A blackest day.
Who will take the responsibility of this severe damage?
Janab, sad how you're more concerned about your rep in your adopted land. We have bigger issues to deal with than being concerned about your petty embarrassment.
Yar Shina is spoken from Pattan to Ladakh. I'm more interested in Pashto. You don't find Pashto often beyond Kohistan. Gilgitis are blind to it. The Baltis will talk to you in English, French, Japanese, Polish but no Pashto. However, I'm not completely denying the possibility that the perps might have hired a hand or two from Northern KPK or the southern outskirts of Gilgit. But term this as a Chillasi act? No, almost impossible. But if we could know the specific dialect of Shina used then it would help.
Referring to the articles quoted by Armstrong (http://www.defence.pk/forums/pakist...rs-nanga-parbat-base-camp-36.html#post4448729), you got to love the northerners. These simple and dirt poor subsistence farmers have always shown more social awareness, sense and responsibility than any of our southern morons. For heaven's sake, learn from them.
Now, like I've said before, this was a deliberate and carefully measured operation by the terrorists aimed at delivering a very specific purpose. The message seems, at least to me, to be one or both of the following; hit the state where the state feels safe only for the sake of delivering a message disregarding any tangible benefits (we've seen this happen before) and create another incident which alienates, if not demonizes, Pakistan in the international arena. If they were simply out for revenge it would make no sense to go all the way to Fairy Meadows, plenty of 'easy target' foreigners else where in the country (we've seen this happen before as well). Now the message needs to be responded to. This was a tactical operation and we don't need to go strategic with our response if it does not benefit our overall strategy (I'm not here to argue on Pakistan's grand strategy). But you must go forcefully tactical. The Pakistani military is no stranger to tactical acts aimed at delivering a very forceful and 'convincing' message to the opposition. Remember how the snipers were dealt with in Swat by the NLI? Or the friendly gifts, wrapped with bow ties and everything, dropped from a heli over some specific villages when the SSG recon team was killed? This wasn't just murder, it was an anti-state act and it must be responded as such. Make it quiet, make it swift and make sure the message gets heard loud and clear on the other side; make them an offer they cannot refuse. The judiciary and the human rights groups can go take a hike on this one.
Give it to the NLI, I say. Disregarding any miracles, the perps should still be in the adjacent areas. Unless the local authorities (millitary, inteligence, police and the politicians) have gone completely insane and impotent these rats aren't going anywhere (maybe a small chance of walking over to the Indian side but I'm not implying anything). They can easily hide on the mountain sides but they can't get out of Gilgit-Baltistan and should be caught later if not soon.
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muse
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Footprints of Asmatullah Moavia found in Nanga Parbat killings
Azaz Syed
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
ISLAMABAD: The police and law enforcement agencies have found solid clues to the involvement of the Asmatullah Moavia group in the gruesome killing of 10 mountaineers at the base camp of Nanga Parbat, Gilgit-Baltistan.
“We know them and we are looking for six key activists and local leaders who have played a major role in this incident. We have some evidence and some eyewitnesses have also given us a good input,” said a senior police officer, requesting anonymity.
The police and law enforcement agencies believe almost one-and-a-half dozen militants from the Punjab, KPK and Gilgit-Baltistan carried out the killings.The sources claim to have got some tangible help from an eyewitness following which at least six important figures are being hunted down, some of whom were physically present and carried out the killings.
The sources said Asmatullah Moavia group was formed about three years back in Gilgit-Baltistan when a man named Mahar Khan, formerly the head of a militant training camp, contacted Moavia in tribal areas and sent his men to join him. They say Mahar Khan, 80, is also missing.
The other people being hounded in connection with the gruesome killings include commander Khalil, Shahzad Khan, Yazeed, Mohammad Ali and Mahkoomullah.On the other hand, talking to this reporter on Sunday morning, TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan identified the group as “Junood-e-Hafsa” (the fist or union of Jamia Hafsa — a religious seminary linked with the Islamabad-based Lal Masjid).
“We have avenged the killing of our commander Waliur Rehman and also raised voice against the drone attacks in tribal areas. By doing this, we wanted to send a message internationally,” said Ehsan while speaking from an undisclosed location, most probably from the Pak-Afghan border.
Waliur Rehman was killed by a drone on May 29 in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency neighboring Afghanistan.He also disclosed that the killing was actually carried out by “Junood-e-Hafsa” — a subsidiary of the TTP.
It is pertinent to mention that Junood-e-Hafsa is a new group formed by the TTP commanded by Asmatullah Moavia.Sources in the law-enforcement agencies claim that the incident had proved that Asmatullah Moavia had now attained a powerful position in the TTP.
Moavia developed differences with Maulana Masood Azhar of Jaishe Mohammad soon after the Lal Masjid operation in 2007 and joined the TTP. Soon, he was appointed as the head of TTP operations in the Punjab.Moavia was identified as the first prominent figure in the Punjabi Taliban. It is not clear yet who else played a role in the brutal killings under his command.
krash
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If by locals you mean the leader of Punjab TTP sending a group from Punjab, KPK and "Gilgit-Baltistan" as the representatives of an "organization" which was formed by the Punjab TTP leader under the direct command and directives of the swine living at the Afghan border.....sure the locals did it.
I would also like a link to the source from Muse for research and cross referencing purposes.
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Leader
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the point being is the problem is in our own house, lets blame all the others and move on !
I can too do that..
DV RULES
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I didn't say any thing like movies, that's all serious and out of fun. If you know intelligence then come and explain but not shooting in the air. Swat, N/S Waziristan, Fata, G-B, where ISI was not involved in pre &post operation or in normal affairs? If you know intelligence then i hope you are aware about "Joint Intelligence North" which is exclusively responsible for the Jammu and Kashmir region and Northern Areas. Tell me whose steps are deeper than ISI in strategic important locations? Don't try to fool others.
Our love for Pakistan army and its institutions has its own place but its their duty to work for they assigned not just spreading bubbles of hope and aims.
DV RULES
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Any body can write out 100 names of this type and sit to the satellite phone and start to enjoy with people!!!
They all traveled, took rest, got weapons, find guides, killed foreigners and vanished......... call all these jokers of intelligence agencies, their provincial and federal stunts and should be prosecuted for their brilliant performance. Heights of " HUM APNE WATAN KI HIFAZAT KE LIYE HAR WAQT TAYYAR HEIN".
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I know what you are saying bro but if there is no hope then there is no life, everything pretty much runs on hope.
Yup...thats why i say what a sad country Pakistan has been made by polititions.
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Too little, too late...very slow progress by authorities. Now when will they start hunting these m0f0s?
krash
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And where did I argue otherwise?
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You people need to restore your battered image overseas. It wil tale some smart politics and along
Time to bring u back into interinternational community
Time to bring u back into interinternational community
Peter Miller
for National Geographic
Published June 28, 2013
Late last Saturday night, gunmen dressed in paramilitary uniforms entered Base Camp at Nanga Parbat, Pakistan's second-highest peak, and murdered ten foreign mountaineers and a Pakistani cook. A spokesman for an Islamist militant group later claimed credit for the killings. It was the first time climbers had been targeted in that manner in Pakistan. The victims included three Ukrainians, three Chinese, two Slovaks, a Nepali, a Pakistani, and a Lithuanian named Ernest Marksaitis.
(Related: "Pakistan Attack Casts Light on Troubled Climbing Zones")
Sher Khan, a Pakistani climber, returned to Base Camp at Nanga Parbat at about two o'clock on Saturday afternoon, June 22. He'd been suffering from the effects of high altitude at Camp 1 and wanted to rest. Besides the other mountaineers at Base Camp, many of whom were also sick, there were about a dozen members of the staff, mostly local people. After a cup of light soup, he climbed into his sleeping bag, still not feeling well.
In this interview, he tells National Geographic what happened on the mountain that night.
What was the first sign of trouble?
I woke up suddenly around 9:30 [in the evening]. I heard noises around my tent. What's going on, I thought. Is somebody fighting or what? I opened my tent flap a little and saw a person carrying a Russian Kalashnikov about 20 meters away. He was wearing a local camouflage uniform.
Then right in front of my tent I saw someone with a terrorist. His name was Ernest, a climber from Lithuania. And he was saying, "I am not American. I am not American."
From another direction I heard, "Go out. Go out. Go, go." They were trying to pull the Chinese out from their tents. "Taliban! Al-Qaeda! Surrender!" They were trying to tell the foreigners to surrender.
Then I saw two people coming toward my tent with a huge Kalashnikov and some knives in their hands. I was trying to hide. The muzzle of the gun came inside my tent and one person said, "Go! Go!" I said, "Look, I'm Pakistani. I'm from Hunza. I am Ismaili. Please."
I tried to recall the Kalima prayer. They said, "Come out!" They were speaking Urdu [spoken in Pakistan] mostly. Then sometimes Pashto [spoken in Afghanistan]. A few words in Shina, the local language. I tried to get out of the tent and they suddenly said, stop! "Do you have money?" I said, yes, I have a little. They said, okay get out the money. So I tried to get back into the tent to get the money, but they kicked my head with their boots and pulled me out of the tent.
They said, 'We don't need you to collect the money. Just go.' They pointed this gun to my head and took me to this line of other people and tied me with a rope. What I saw then was eight or nine people tied with a rope.There some Pakistani people also. Some Ukrainian people. This poor Ernest was also tied. And one Nepali was also tied. And of course, it was my time turn for them to tie me. They put me next to a Ukrainian guy on the far right side.
They took a little time to bring out more people. They went to each and every tent. "Taliban, Al-Qaeda. Surrender." They were looking for foreign tourists. They pointed a gun at me and a camp cook and said, "We know you can speak English. Ask them who has money in their tents." They threatened the climbers. "If we find money in your tent that you are hiding, we are going to shoot you." Everybody was scared. We all said, yes, we have money. The foreigners said, yes, we have Euros. Yes, we have dollars. And one by one they took climbers to their different tents and collected the money.
Then they asked for satellite phones. "Who has Thuraya phones?" The climbers said "yes, we have Thuraya phones, we have walkie-talkies." Again they took them to the tents and collected the Thuraya phones. But this time they destroyed all the phones and walkie talkies. Some they shot with Kalashnikovs. Some they destroyed with stones. Whatever electronics they found, like laptops, solar panels, they destroyed them with stones and with their feet.
All this time I was begging them, please, we are Muslim, Ismaili from Hunza. We are Pakistanis. Why are you doing this?
Then suddenly one person came to me and said, okay, if you are a Muslim, tell me this, this, and this about morning prayer. But we Ismaili say a different prayer. So I was helpless and kept quiet. Then another person said to the first one, "Don't you know that these Ismaili people from Hunza don't offer the same prayer?" So this ugly man went away from my face.
Then somebody said, "Okay, let's separate these three people from Hunza from the rope." So they released us, but told us, "Don't try to look up. Stay on your knees."
Then one person told the rest of the row, the Ukrainian people, the poor Nepali and the Pakistani guy, Chinese people, to turn their faces in the other direction. So that they could shoot them, you know. But I was thinking, maybe they are not going to shoot them. Maybe they are robbers. They've got the money and everything. Maybe they are going to just go away.
But unfortunately, when they started to move them in opposite directions, I was just stunned. I couldn't see what was going on. I was on my knees, bent down, holding my body.
Then suddenly I heard the sound of shooting. I looked a little up and what I saw was this poor Ukrainian guy, who had been tied with me, I saw him sitting down. Then after that moment, the shooting started in bursts. Three times. Brrrr. Brrrr. Brrrr. Three times like that. Then the leader, this stupid ugly man, said, "Now stop firing. Don't fire anybody." Then that son of a ***** came in between the dead bodies and he personally shot them one by one. Dun. Dun. Dun. Every body he shot down. And then afterward we heard slogans, like Allahu Akbar. Salam Zindabad. Osama bin Laden Zindabad. And one stupid person said, "Today these people are revenge for Osama bin Laden."
Then they were about fifty feet away and gathered for a while. Then they dispersed from that point downward.
Suddenly it was totally quiet. It was a very silent moment. We waited for a little while more, and we rushed to the kitchen where our cook found a knife and our hands were finally freed. I tried to find a radio in my tent. I found two walkie talkies and tried to contact my team mates at Camp 2. I said, please, Camp 2, this is an emergency, can you hear me? But everybody must have been sleeping. I went to each and every tent looking for a Thuraya.
Then my Hunza friends said, look, if they come again, they're going to kill us. We need to go somewhere safe. So we tried to go toward Camp 1, but we didn't have the right clothes or shoes because they had pulled us from our sleeping bags. But we were really in terror. So the three of us climbed about 300 meters up the mountain to where we could look down on Base Camp. It was about one o'clock and we found a kind of cave. We tried to hug each other to get a little heat. We stayed there all night. We kept trying to contact Camp 2, but I heard nothing until 7:30 in the morning. I kept my radio on. Suddenly I heard one of my friends, Karim. I told him what had happened, that people had died. I was crying.
Karim contacted Nazir Sabir, a famous climber, who said that the Army was already on the move. They were on the way with helicopters. So don't move until they land at Base Camp, he said.
After the gunmen left Base Camp, did anyone check to see if the climbers were all dead?
At that moment, it was very hard to stay in that place. To get closer to the bodies. It was a really hard moment. But some people, including myself, heard a strange noise from the body of one person. As if he was still alive. Others were completely quiet. One person, he was doing something like snoring. We heard that sound for a little while before we left that camp. But when I asked some local people, staff, who were tied in a tent nearby, they said, you know, we were hearing that snoring sound until maybe two o'clock in the morning. It could be that he was alive. I don't know.
It sounds just horrible.
You know, to this day, I can't sleep. It was a week ago. Afterward the Army took me and some of my friends for interrogation. They asked a lot of questions. What kind of people were they? What kind of accent did they have? I answered a lot of questions. Now I can't sleep. But if I do, I wake up suddenly with any noises. It's also difficult for me to go into a room. Because I feel like it's a tent and somebody is going to come get me at gunpoint. It's very difficult.
Aleksandra Dzik, a young climber from Poland, was also on the mountain that night. But she, like 30 or so other mountaineers, was higher on the peak at Camp 2 when the killings occurred. As leader of the International Nanga Parbat Expedition 2013, Dzik was helping her team of 20 prepare for an ascent of the peak when she heard the news. Ernest was a member of her team.
In this interview, she tells National Geographic what she saw and heard on the mountain.
How did you learn of the attack?
It was about 6 in the morning and we heard about it from Karim Hayat, a Pakistani climber who had a tent near us at Camp 2. He'd gotten a call from his climbing partner, Sher Khan, who was at Base Camp. Khan said the Taliban had tied him up and carried him out of his tent and stood him up right next to the people who were shot. But in the end they didn't shoot him. He was in shock. When he managed to untie his hands, he called Karim and warned him not to come down from Camp 2.
Of course, when we heard what had happened, we tried to get in touch with Ernest, the only member of our team who was still at Base Camp. Ernest had decided to rest for a few days, because he was sick. He had stomach problems. But he didn't reply. We were hoping maybe he had lost his radio and escaped. Unfortunately, it wasn't true. Other expeditions were also calling their members at Base Camp, but only getting silence.
We decided to go back down to Base Camp. By the time we arrived, the Army was already there and the bodies had been taken away.
It must have been a shock.
We couldn't believe it. We are climbers. Every one of us has lost friends in the mountains. But it was always by the power of nature. It's a game we all play. We accept the risk.
But here the deaths at Base Camp were caused by people. It was just terrible.
Someone said to us, I will show you the place where they were all put together, taken from their tents, and shot dead. There was blood on the grass. It was the most terrible moment. There was also white down, because they had been wearing down suits. And there were shells from the gun.
Before the attack, a Slovakian climber at Camp 2 had also been having stomach problems. So his climbing partner, another Slovakian, and his team leader, a Ukrainian, decided to take him back down to Base Camp. They thought that would be the safest place for a sick person, but in fact they all went to the one place that was the most dangerous, and they were killed there.
That night we were quite afraid. We put several tents together with three or four people in each small tent to be close together.
The next day we were evacuated by Army helicopters to an army base. Then an Army aircraft took us to Islamabad, where our agencies and embassies got us a hotel.
Do you feel safe now in Pakistan?
You know, what can we do? We are quite scared. More anxious than before. When we go out in the city, we are more careful how we dress, how we look.
Before when we came to Pakistan, we got used to the terrorism in this country, where people unfortunately are killed every day. But we always felt that it didn't concern us, that it was the problem of the Pakistanis and we were guests in their country. We believed that we were untouchable.
Now we do not feel safe on the streets, but we try to behave normally any way. Because it's the only thing we can do against terrorism. To live normally. Not to give terrorists what they wantto make us hide.
Climbers Recount Murder on Famous Pakistan Peak
for National Geographic
Published June 28, 2013
Late last Saturday night, gunmen dressed in paramilitary uniforms entered Base Camp at Nanga Parbat, Pakistan's second-highest peak, and murdered ten foreign mountaineers and a Pakistani cook. A spokesman for an Islamist militant group later claimed credit for the killings. It was the first time climbers had been targeted in that manner in Pakistan. The victims included three Ukrainians, three Chinese, two Slovaks, a Nepali, a Pakistani, and a Lithuanian named Ernest Marksaitis.
(Related: "Pakistan Attack Casts Light on Troubled Climbing Zones")
Sher Khan, a Pakistani climber, returned to Base Camp at Nanga Parbat at about two o'clock on Saturday afternoon, June 22. He'd been suffering from the effects of high altitude at Camp 1 and wanted to rest. Besides the other mountaineers at Base Camp, many of whom were also sick, there were about a dozen members of the staff, mostly local people. After a cup of light soup, he climbed into his sleeping bag, still not feeling well.
In this interview, he tells National Geographic what happened on the mountain that night.
What was the first sign of trouble?
I woke up suddenly around 9:30 [in the evening]. I heard noises around my tent. What's going on, I thought. Is somebody fighting or what? I opened my tent flap a little and saw a person carrying a Russian Kalashnikov about 20 meters away. He was wearing a local camouflage uniform.
Then right in front of my tent I saw someone with a terrorist. His name was Ernest, a climber from Lithuania. And he was saying, "I am not American. I am not American."
From another direction I heard, "Go out. Go out. Go, go." They were trying to pull the Chinese out from their tents. "Taliban! Al-Qaeda! Surrender!" They were trying to tell the foreigners to surrender.
Then I saw two people coming toward my tent with a huge Kalashnikov and some knives in their hands. I was trying to hide. The muzzle of the gun came inside my tent and one person said, "Go! Go!" I said, "Look, I'm Pakistani. I'm from Hunza. I am Ismaili. Please."
I tried to recall the Kalima prayer. They said, "Come out!" They were speaking Urdu [spoken in Pakistan] mostly. Then sometimes Pashto [spoken in Afghanistan]. A few words in Shina, the local language. I tried to get out of the tent and they suddenly said, stop! "Do you have money?" I said, yes, I have a little. They said, okay get out the money. So I tried to get back into the tent to get the money, but they kicked my head with their boots and pulled me out of the tent.
They said, 'We don't need you to collect the money. Just go.' They pointed this gun to my head and took me to this line of other people and tied me with a rope. What I saw then was eight or nine people tied with a rope.There some Pakistani people also. Some Ukrainian people. This poor Ernest was also tied. And one Nepali was also tied. And of course, it was my time turn for them to tie me. They put me next to a Ukrainian guy on the far right side.
They took a little time to bring out more people. They went to each and every tent. "Taliban, Al-Qaeda. Surrender." They were looking for foreign tourists. They pointed a gun at me and a camp cook and said, "We know you can speak English. Ask them who has money in their tents." They threatened the climbers. "If we find money in your tent that you are hiding, we are going to shoot you." Everybody was scared. We all said, yes, we have money. The foreigners said, yes, we have Euros. Yes, we have dollars. And one by one they took climbers to their different tents and collected the money.
Then they asked for satellite phones. "Who has Thuraya phones?" The climbers said "yes, we have Thuraya phones, we have walkie-talkies." Again they took them to the tents and collected the Thuraya phones. But this time they destroyed all the phones and walkie talkies. Some they shot with Kalashnikovs. Some they destroyed with stones. Whatever electronics they found, like laptops, solar panels, they destroyed them with stones and with their feet.
All this time I was begging them, please, we are Muslim, Ismaili from Hunza. We are Pakistanis. Why are you doing this?
Then suddenly one person came to me and said, okay, if you are a Muslim, tell me this, this, and this about morning prayer. But we Ismaili say a different prayer. So I was helpless and kept quiet. Then another person said to the first one, "Don't you know that these Ismaili people from Hunza don't offer the same prayer?" So this ugly man went away from my face.
Then somebody said, "Okay, let's separate these three people from Hunza from the rope." So they released us, but told us, "Don't try to look up. Stay on your knees."
Then one person told the rest of the row, the Ukrainian people, the poor Nepali and the Pakistani guy, Chinese people, to turn their faces in the other direction. So that they could shoot them, you know. But I was thinking, maybe they are not going to shoot them. Maybe they are robbers. They've got the money and everything. Maybe they are going to just go away.
But unfortunately, when they started to move them in opposite directions, I was just stunned. I couldn't see what was going on. I was on my knees, bent down, holding my body.
Then suddenly I heard the sound of shooting. I looked a little up and what I saw was this poor Ukrainian guy, who had been tied with me, I saw him sitting down. Then after that moment, the shooting started in bursts. Three times. Brrrr. Brrrr. Brrrr. Three times like that. Then the leader, this stupid ugly man, said, "Now stop firing. Don't fire anybody." Then that son of a ***** came in between the dead bodies and he personally shot them one by one. Dun. Dun. Dun. Every body he shot down. And then afterward we heard slogans, like Allahu Akbar. Salam Zindabad. Osama bin Laden Zindabad. And one stupid person said, "Today these people are revenge for Osama bin Laden."
Then they were about fifty feet away and gathered for a while. Then they dispersed from that point downward.
Suddenly it was totally quiet. It was a very silent moment. We waited for a little while more, and we rushed to the kitchen where our cook found a knife and our hands were finally freed. I tried to find a radio in my tent. I found two walkie talkies and tried to contact my team mates at Camp 2. I said, please, Camp 2, this is an emergency, can you hear me? But everybody must have been sleeping. I went to each and every tent looking for a Thuraya.
Then my Hunza friends said, look, if they come again, they're going to kill us. We need to go somewhere safe. So we tried to go toward Camp 1, but we didn't have the right clothes or shoes because they had pulled us from our sleeping bags. But we were really in terror. So the three of us climbed about 300 meters up the mountain to where we could look down on Base Camp. It was about one o'clock and we found a kind of cave. We tried to hug each other to get a little heat. We stayed there all night. We kept trying to contact Camp 2, but I heard nothing until 7:30 in the morning. I kept my radio on. Suddenly I heard one of my friends, Karim. I told him what had happened, that people had died. I was crying.
Karim contacted Nazir Sabir, a famous climber, who said that the Army was already on the move. They were on the way with helicopters. So don't move until they land at Base Camp, he said.
After the gunmen left Base Camp, did anyone check to see if the climbers were all dead?
At that moment, it was very hard to stay in that place. To get closer to the bodies. It was a really hard moment. But some people, including myself, heard a strange noise from the body of one person. As if he was still alive. Others were completely quiet. One person, he was doing something like snoring. We heard that sound for a little while before we left that camp. But when I asked some local people, staff, who were tied in a tent nearby, they said, you know, we were hearing that snoring sound until maybe two o'clock in the morning. It could be that he was alive. I don't know.
It sounds just horrible.
You know, to this day, I can't sleep. It was a week ago. Afterward the Army took me and some of my friends for interrogation. They asked a lot of questions. What kind of people were they? What kind of accent did they have? I answered a lot of questions. Now I can't sleep. But if I do, I wake up suddenly with any noises. It's also difficult for me to go into a room. Because I feel like it's a tent and somebody is going to come get me at gunpoint. It's very difficult.
Aleksandra Dzik, a young climber from Poland, was also on the mountain that night. But she, like 30 or so other mountaineers, was higher on the peak at Camp 2 when the killings occurred. As leader of the International Nanga Parbat Expedition 2013, Dzik was helping her team of 20 prepare for an ascent of the peak when she heard the news. Ernest was a member of her team.
In this interview, she tells National Geographic what she saw and heard on the mountain.
How did you learn of the attack?
It was about 6 in the morning and we heard about it from Karim Hayat, a Pakistani climber who had a tent near us at Camp 2. He'd gotten a call from his climbing partner, Sher Khan, who was at Base Camp. Khan said the Taliban had tied him up and carried him out of his tent and stood him up right next to the people who were shot. But in the end they didn't shoot him. He was in shock. When he managed to untie his hands, he called Karim and warned him not to come down from Camp 2.
Of course, when we heard what had happened, we tried to get in touch with Ernest, the only member of our team who was still at Base Camp. Ernest had decided to rest for a few days, because he was sick. He had stomach problems. But he didn't reply. We were hoping maybe he had lost his radio and escaped. Unfortunately, it wasn't true. Other expeditions were also calling their members at Base Camp, but only getting silence.
We decided to go back down to Base Camp. By the time we arrived, the Army was already there and the bodies had been taken away.
It must have been a shock.
We couldn't believe it. We are climbers. Every one of us has lost friends in the mountains. But it was always by the power of nature. It's a game we all play. We accept the risk.
But here the deaths at Base Camp were caused by people. It was just terrible.
Someone said to us, I will show you the place where they were all put together, taken from their tents, and shot dead. There was blood on the grass. It was the most terrible moment. There was also white down, because they had been wearing down suits. And there were shells from the gun.
Before the attack, a Slovakian climber at Camp 2 had also been having stomach problems. So his climbing partner, another Slovakian, and his team leader, a Ukrainian, decided to take him back down to Base Camp. They thought that would be the safest place for a sick person, but in fact they all went to the one place that was the most dangerous, and they were killed there.
That night we were quite afraid. We put several tents together with three or four people in each small tent to be close together.
The next day we were evacuated by Army helicopters to an army base. Then an Army aircraft took us to Islamabad, where our agencies and embassies got us a hotel.
Do you feel safe now in Pakistan?
You know, what can we do? We are quite scared. More anxious than before. When we go out in the city, we are more careful how we dress, how we look.
Before when we came to Pakistan, we got used to the terrorism in this country, where people unfortunately are killed every day. But we always felt that it didn't concern us, that it was the problem of the Pakistanis and we were guests in their country. We believed that we were untouchable.
Now we do not feel safe on the streets, but we try to behave normally any way. Because it's the only thing we can do against terrorism. To live normally. Not to give terrorists what they wantto make us hide.
Climbers Recount Murder on Famous Pakistan Peak
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