Militants Kill Nine Foreign Climbers in Pakistan
By Haq Nawaz Khan and Tim Craig for The Boston Globe
Gunmen stormed a camp on Pakistanâs second-largest mountain Sunday, killing nine foreign climbers, including a US citizen, in a brazen assault that could deal a blow to the countryâs efforts to jump-start its tourism industry.
The Pakistani Taliban asserted responsibility for the attack, calling it retribution for a suspected US drone strike last month that killed Wali ur-Rehman, the second in command of the terrorist group.
ââThrough this killing we gave a message to the international community to ask US to stop drone strikes,ââ said Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Taliban spokesman.
The attack in northern Pakistan at Nanga Parbat, the worldâs ninth-tallest mountain, occurred around 1 a.m. as the climbers and their guides were at a camp about 4,000 feet above sea level. According to local and regional officials, about a dozen gunmen tied up the climbersâ Pakistani guides before shooting the climbers as they slept in tents.
The attackers reportedly wore police uniforms, an increasingly common tactic that Taliban militants have used to evade scrutiny.
In all, 10 people were killed, including five from Ukraine, two from China, and one from Russia, according to preliminary information from Pakistani authorities. At least one Pakistani guide also was killed. At least one Chinese tourist survived and was rescued from the area, known as Fairy Meadows, officials said.
Pakistanâs interior minister said a US citizen was killed in the assault. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said four bodies have been identified, including those of a Chinese-American, two Chinese, and one local guide who is thought to be a Nepali national.
Matthew Boland, acting spokesman for the US Embassy in Islamabad, said authorities were withholding the identification of the American until relatives could be notified.
ââThe United States government strongly condemns the terrorist attack on tourists in the northern areas of Pakistan in which nine innocent tourists and a Pakistani guide were murdered,ââ Boland said. ââThe US Embassy Islamabad expresses its deepest condolences to the family and friends of the US citizen and the other innocent tourists who were killed.ââ
Boland said the FBI was working closely with Pakistani authorities to gather more information on the attack.
The assault occurred in the picturesque Gilgit-Baltistan area, a popular tourist area in the Himalayas near the countryâs border with China. Nanga Parbat rises to 26,660 feet. The worldâs second-largest mountain, K2, with an elevation of 28,251 feet, straddles Gilgit-Baltistanâs border with China.
The slayings come as Pakistanâs military and government have been trying to combat a wave of terrorist bombings and sectarian attacks, including some aimed at Shiâites in the northern part of the country.
Attacks on foreigners have been rare, and Sundayâs killings rattled Pakistanâs government.
Khan, the interior minister, spent part of Sunday fielding calls from worried ambassadors, including Chinese envoy Xu Feihong.
ââHe asked whether Chinese tourists were the target, and I said Pakistan was the target,ââ he said. ââThe terrorists want to give a message to the world that Pakistan is an insecure place and insecure country.ââ
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to rebuild Pakistanâs economy. He said such acts of ââcruelty and inhumanityââ wouldnât deter the state from efforts ââto make Pakistan a safe place for tourists.ââ
But Syed Mehdi Shah, the chief minister in Gilgit-Baltistan, said he worries that the incident will hurt the local economy, which relies heavily on the summer climbing season.
ââIt will have negative effects on tourism in the scenic northern areas, which is the sole source of revenue of the government as well [as] of the local population,ââ he said.
Shahjahan Khetran, managing director of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation, said the ââgovernment tries its best to provide security cover to touristsââ in that area, including making hikers and climbers register their whereabouts.
But until now, Khetran noted, the biggest threats for tourists in that remote area were not man-made.
ââI personally see the involvement of some foreign hand, some foreign agency in this incident as local people could not think of carrying out such a heinous crime,ââ Khetran said. ââSome foreign element could have carried out this attack to destroy Pakistani tourism.ââ
For weeks, Pakistanâs Taliban has been vowing that it would avenge the death of Rehman, who was killed May 29 when a suspected CIA-operated drone fired two missiles into a house in Pakistanâs North Waziristan tribal region.
US officials have not confirmed that they carried out that strike, but they had issued a $5 million reward for Rehmanâs capture after he was linked to a 2009 assault that killed seven Americans at a CIA training facility in Afghanistan.
At the time, the Pakistani Taliban partly blamed the Islamabad government for not doing more to stop suspected US drone strikes on Pakistani soil.
Pakistanis for Peace Editor’s Note– The tragic killing of these innocent foreign mountaineers in Pakistan goes to show that the Taliban one again can not be trusted and it is foolish to negotiate with them or even try. Pakistan must eradicate this menace from wiithin and only then will the citizens of Pakistan and other nations ever be safe.
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