2013 Nanga Parbat massacre

2013 Nanga Parbat massacre
Part of War in North-West Pakistan
Nanga Parbat Nanga Parbat (Pakistan)
Location	Nanga Parbat, Kashmir, Pakistan
Date	22 June 2013 (2013-06-22)–23 June 2013 (2013-06-23) 10:00 p.m.–12:00 a.m. (Pakistan Standard Time) (UTC +5:00)
Target	Foreign mountaineering party
Attack type	Mass murder
Deaths	11
Non-fatal injuries	2
Perpetrator	Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Motive	U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani territory

On June 22, 2013, about 16 militants, reportedly dressed in Gilgit Scouts uniforms, stormed a high-altitude mountaineering base camp in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan, and killed 10 climbers and a local guide.^[1] The climbers were from various countries, including Ukraine, China, Slovakia, Lithuania and Nepal.^[2][3][4] A Chinese citizen managed to escape the assailants, and a member of the group from Latvia happened to be outside the camp during the attack.^[5][6] The attack happened at the base camp on Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world.^[7] The mountain is popular among trekkers and mountaineers from June to August because of the moderate weather conditions.^[7]

In November 2013, many of the assailants involved in the attack were arrested and tried under the Anti-Terrorist Act. According to the Senate's Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, the original motive of the militants had not been to kill the tourists, but kidnap them for ransom.^[8]

The attack

The attack occurred at this base camp. The Nanga Parbat mountain can be seen in the background.

On June 22, 2013, at 10.00 p.m. local time, about 16 attackers entered the base camp, where foreign tourists who come to climb the Nanga Parbat mountains usually stay. The attackers then opened fire, killing ten tourists. One was an American with dual Chinese citizenship; three came from Ukraine, two from Slovakia, one other from China and one from Lithuania; one a Sherpa from Nepal.^[2][9][10]

The attackers had reportedly gained access to this remote location by abducting two Pakistani guides. The site of the attack is located 4,200 metres (14,000 ft) above sea-level and can only be approached via foot or horseback. According to a Diamer police official, Muhammad Nabi, one of the abducted guides, was killed during the shootout, while the other was found and detained for questioning. He said that there was general misinformation in the media regarding the Pakistani killed. Nabi stated that the guide of the expedition was a Nepalese by the name of Sona Sherpa and not the Pakistani guide as portrayed by the local media.^[11]

Zhang Jingchuan, a Chinese mountaineer who survived the assault, described his ordeal in a press-conference held at Kunming in the Yunnan province of China. He recalled the attack being sudden. He said that he was shot at and a bullet flew over his head. After that, he stated he got out and started running blindly towards a trench 30 metres (100 ft) away. Upon reaching the trench he jumped in and stayed there for 40 minutes. After that he sneaked out and made his way back to the cabin, where he called the police from a satellite phone. According to Zhang, a helicopter arrived nine hours after the incident, during which time he had grabbed an ice-axe and had moved to higher ground. Zhang Jingchuan also noted that before shooting the climbers, the attackers collected the climbers' passports and took their photos.^[6][12][13]

Sher Khan, a Pakistani climber who survived the attack, revealed more details. According to his report, the terrorists first made the climbers give them money, satellite phones and radio sets, then tied the climbers' hands with ropes. After that, they asked the climbers to turn their faces in the opposite direction and shot them immediately without any explanation.^[14]

The perpetrators identified themselves as "al-Qaida" and "Taliban". Some were teenagers, while others were in their twenties and the leader was older. "They were shouting God is Great, long live Islam and long live Osama bin Laden", Sher Khan remembered. "They kept shouting as they left. I remember one shouting: "this is revenge for Sheikh bin Laden"."^[15]

This shooting was the first time an attack on mountaineers occurred in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, which was generally considered free from militancy apart from sporadic attacks on the minority Shi'ite Muslims.^[4][7][16]

According to later information, the terrorists planned to kidnap Chen Honglu (the dual Chinese-American citizen) to trade him for a Taliban commander in Afghanistan. As the attack unfolded in the Nanga Parbat base camp, Chen burst out of his tent and tackled one of the militants using martial arts techniques. The militant, named Mujeeb, panicked and shot him, destroying the main purpose of the mission and infuriating the terrorist commanders. The remaining climbers were then tied up and shot. The attackers then walked for five hours to a remote village where they buried their uniforms and had breakfast before walking on to another village and dispersing.^[17]

Perpetrators

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement released later on the day of the attack. The group claimed it was a retaliation for the fatal US drone strike against Waliur Rehman, a pro-peace Taliban commander,^[18] who was killed on 29 May 2013.^[7] The group's spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan said ″Through this killing we gave a message to international community to ask U.S. to stop drone strikes″.^[19] Another militant group Jundallah, notorious for organising attacks on Pakistani Shi'ites, had also previously claimed responsibility.^[4]

Victims

The victims were:^[20][21]

Number of victims	Country	Names	Notes
3	Ukraine	Ihor Sverhun, 47 (uk) Badavi Kashayev, 54 Dmytro Koniayev, 43	Sverhun was the team leader and had climbed 6 8,000ers in the past All three were from Kharkiv.[21]
2	Slovakia	Anton Dobeš, 50 Peter Šperka (sk), 57
2	China	Chunfeng Yang (zh), 45 Jianfeng Rao (zh), 49	Yang was a leading Chinese mountaineer who had climbed 11 8,000ers under his belt. Rao was another leading Chinese mountaineer with 10 8,000ers[22] See also Honglu Chen, listed under United States.
1	United States	Honglu Chen, 50	American with dual Chinese citizenship.[23][24]
1	Lithuania	Ernestas Markšaitis, 44	Solo-climbed Broad Peak in 2012, attempted K2 same year, attempted Dhaulagiri and other 8,000ers in the past[25]
1	Nepal	Sona Sherpa, 35	Climbed K2 in 2012[26]
1	Pakistan	Ali Hussain, 28	Pakistani cook in one of the teams (not a guide previously thought).[11]

Investigation and arrests

Following the incident, the Interior Minister of Pakistan, Nisar Ali Khan, suspended the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Chief Secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan for their failure to provide effective security to the tourists. He further stated that an inquiry would be held to determine the cause of the incident.

A day following the attack, Nisar told the National Assembly of Pakistan that an investigation committee consisting of the Chief of Army Staff (Ashfaq Parvez Kayani), the Director General of the ISI (Zaheerul Islam), representatives from other intelligence agencies and officials from the Gilgit-Baltistan police had been formed to investigate the incident. A local jirga was also formed in Diamer.^[27]

Immediately after the investigation started, 37 suspects were arrested from the villages surrounding the site of the attack. However, IGP Zakaria later said that 33 of them were porters who gave important information regarding the attack. All 37 were released after questioning.^[28][29]

A significant breakthrough was made four days after the incident when all 16 of the attackers were identified. According to the police chief, Zakaria, the help from the local Diamer jirga was instrumental in this development. The men volunteering in the jirga were dropped off into various adjacent valleys and then picked up for a debriefing in Chilas. The police chief further stated that all the attackers were local, with 10 of them belonging to Diamer, 3 to Mansehra and 3 of them belonging to Kohistan. The ten Diamer valley residents were identified as Hidayat Ullah, Shafiqullah, Qari Rafaqat, Sana Ullah, Malik Nijad, Azizullah, Mahfoozul Haq, Mujeed, Shafi Muhammad and Hazrat Oman. The Chief Secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan, Munir Badini, was hesitant in linking them to the Pakistani Taliban but confirmed that from the reports he received, the assailants were trained in FATA, a place 760 kilometres (470 mi) downhill that is a hotbed of extremism and borders Afghanistan.^[29][30]

On June 30, 2013, a week after the assault, the Deputy Inspector General of Police for Gilgit-Baltistan police, Ali Sher, told the media that one of the attackers, Shafi Muhammad, was arrested in a house in the nearby town of Chilas. He said the attacker had been taking refuge in this house since the attack and arresting him was major milestone in resolving this case. Another attacker, Shafiqullah, was arrested later the same day.^[31][32]

On July 6, 2013, the police arrested another person from Chilas believed to be involved in the shooting. Sher, in a press conference, stated that efforts to arrest all perpetrators had stepped up and more arrests would take place in the coming days.^[32]

On July 15, 2013, 4 out of the 16 suspected attackers had been arrested. The identity of the fourth perpetrator was undisclosed. The Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Relations called a special meeting to get an update from the Gilgit-Baltistan authorities on the progress of investigation. The chairman of the Senate Committee, Haji Mohammad Adeel, said that he was concerned that there was no tangible progress in bringing the culprits to justice. The Chief Secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan, Mohammad Younus Dhaga, was briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Relations over the attack on Nanga Parbat saying that "it was unexpected that foreign tourists would be targeted in the area, since no tourist was killed there since 1854." Haji Mohammad Adeel disagreed, saying, "no attack is carried out by making the plan public; it is the intelligence agencies' task to assess areas, while being cognisant of the overall security atmosphere."^[33][34]

On August 7, 2013, Taliban killed three security officials who were investigating the Nanga Parbat massacre. Gunmen opened fire on the officers' vehicle in Chilas in the Diamer district while it was returning from the house of the deputy commissioner. The officials who were killed included a police official, Superintendent Hilal Ahmed, who was driving the vehicle, Captain Ashfaq Aziz and Colonel Ghulam Mustafa. The latter two belonged to the Pakistan Army and were responsible for the internal security of the district.^[35][36]

The death of army officials prompted the Pakistan Army to enter the district for the first time since the incident. The army conducted a targeted operation in four places in Chilas while the entry and exit points to the town were sealed and Army Aviation helicopters hovered above. The operations lasted till late in the evening of August 11, 2013. An undisclosed number of suspects were rounded up as a result.^[37]

On August 19, 2013, it was reported that all 20 of the men supposed to be behind the Nanga Parbat attack had been arrested. The series of arrests were started by an army operation earlier in the week and ended with a targeted police operation in the suspected hideouts of these militants. According to the newly instated SP of Diamer district, Muhammad Navid, the arrested militants were also responsible for the February 2012 Kohistan Shia Massacre, in which 18 Shi'ite Muslims were killed. Navid further said that intelligence agencies played a pivotal role in the arrests and that further information would be released in a couple of days.^[38]

The Chief Secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan, Younis Dagha, announced that among the arrested on August 19, 2013 was the terrorist Qaribullah ("Hasan"), a former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan leader of the Chilas unit, who might be the mastermind of the Nanga Parbat attack, as well as M Nabi (Qari Husnain), who was a suspect in the murder of government officials on August 7, 2013.^[39]

As of June 2014, five out of 18 detained suspects were still in custody. However several militant sources say only one of them was involved in the attack, while the rest were forced to confess. Mujeeb remained in hiding in the forests of the district, where, from time to time, he was making audio recordings of militant poetry that were being brought into the markets of Gilgit. According to Bashir Qureshi, a member of the negotiating team assigned to bring the culprits out of hiding, there were many grey areas in the case. "Nothing is clear, they have mixed up four different cases to give an impression that all the perpetrators have been arrested but the real perpetrators are still at large", he said.^[17]

2015 jail escape

On February 27, 2015, four inmates made an attempt to escape the Gilgit district jail. Of the two who managed to flee, one was allegedly involved in the Nanga Parbat tourist shooting incident. Security agencies started an operation to capture the escapees but as of 4 March 2015 the escaped inmates had not been captured. A reward of Rs. 2 million was also announced by the Gilgit Baltistan Home Secretary, Sibtain Ahmed, for people who helped the authorities in capturing Habibur Rehman, the escaped inmate allegedly involved in the Nanga Parbat massacre.^[40][41]

Reactions

• – Army helicopters were sent to retrieve the bodies, while Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari issued statements condemning the attack.^[7] The Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly passed a unanimous resolution condemning the "barbaric attack". A day after the incident, thousands of people from Chilas took to the streets to express solidarity with the relatives of the deceased. Shops and businesses also remained closed.^[42] Two days after the incident, scores of people gathered to hold a candlelight vigil in remembrance of the victims about 300 kilometres (190 mi) away from the site of the attack. The event was attended by the members of the civil society and the government. The attendees held placards inscribed with messages that denounced terrorism and empathized with the bereaved families.^[43] The local mountaineering expedition organizer of Pakistan, the Alpine Club of Pakistan, also censured this "deplorable and heinous act of terrorism".^[44]
• – the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, issued a statement condemning the attack and said that he was "deeply concerned about the recent wave of violence in Pakistan" and that the "UN will grant the Pakistani government full support in the face of terrorism and extremism." He also urged the Government of Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice.^[45]
• – Two German expedition organizers, Hauser Exkursionen and Amical Alpin cancelled their trips to Nanga Parbat in the wake of the terrorist attack.^[46]
• – The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry categorically condemned the attacks and asked the Pakistan Government to compensate the bereaved and bring the culprits to justice as soon as possible.^[47][48]
• – The Chinese Government adopted an aggressive stance after the incident and asked their Pakistani counterparts to "severely punish" the perpetrators and ensure the security of their citizens.^[49]
• – Latvian foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs, stated in a tweet, following the attack that "Our mountain climber was not at the camp during the attack. A lucky coincidence. However, it is also a reminder that no one is safe from terrorists."^[50]
• The UIAA president, Frits Vrijlandt, condemned the attack.^[51]
• Families of the Ukrainian climbers who were killed by terrorists in Nanga Parbat Base Camp Pakistan have demanded compensations of US$300,000 for each death. The government of Pakistan had previously refused the requests of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to provide monetary compensation to the families of the lost climbers. Lawyers said they intended to appeal.^[52]

References

Coordinates: 35°27′18″N 73°56′59″E / 35.45500°N 73.94972°E / 35.45500; 73.94972