Condolence reference held in memory of Sadpara

GH Farooqui

CHITRAL: The participants of a memorial reference paid tributes to Muhammad Ali Sadpara who disappeared while scaling K2 on Feb 5 along with two foreign mountaineers.

Candles were also lit in memory of the lost mountaineers. 

The speakers said Sadpara had last year visited Chitral and was impressed by the beauty of mountains here and also scaled the Zarra Pass. 

They said after 9/11, a group of foreign mountaineers had arrived in Chitral to scale Terichmir but the district administration did not allow them to proceed to the base camp and sent them back citing security concerns. 

The organizers of the event said this year in July-August a group of youth would be taken to the base camp of Terichmir for training on mountaineering.

The speakers stressed the need to promote tourism without negatively impacting the indigenous culture.