——A total of 10 foreign mountaineers were shot dead by Taliban militants in Pakistan, including 2 Chinese citizens and 1 Chinese-American. Another Chinese citizen survived.
——A year ago, Chinese civilian mountaineers Yang Chunfeng, Rao Jianfeng, and Zhang Jinchuan climbed K2 (also known as Mount Godwin-Austen), known as the "King of Mountains," in Pakistan together, becoming the first Han Chinese mountaineers to successfully summit the peak.
——A year later, the trio returned to Pakistan to tackle Nanga Parbat. However, an unexpected bloody attack shattered their summit dreams and claimed the lives of Yang Chunfeng and Rao Jianfeng.
——In the early hours of the 23rd, a group of Pakistani Taliban militants raided the Nanga Parbat base camp at an altitude of about 4,200 meters. Ten foreigners, including Yang, Rao, and Chinese-American Chen Honglu, were killed, while another Chinese, Zhang Jinchuan, managed to escape.
Taliban attack base camp, survivor calls home for help
It is understood that Yang Chunfeng and others had been at the Nanga Parbat base camp for a week, and Yang's last contact with China was at 5 p.m. Beijing time on the 22nd.
Then, at 8:20 a.m. yesterday, Yang Chunfeng’s assistant received a call from Zhang Jinchuan. In the call, Zhang said hurriedly, “Immediately inform the embassy, we’ve been attacked at the Nanga base camp, Old Yang is gone...”, before the call was cut off.
After receiving the call, Yang Chunfeng’s assistant immediately contacted the embassy and the China Mountaineering Association for help.
Later, Pakistani police disclosed news of the attack.
Police said a shooting incident occurred at the Nanga Parbat camp in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the early hours of the day, which has so far resulted in the deaths of 10 foreign mountaineers.
According to Zhang Jinchuan, who later spoke to China again, the militants who raided the camp in the middle of the night kidnapped all the mountaineers, drove them out of their tents one by one, and shot them. Yang Chunfeng and Rao Jianfeng were killed on the spot. Zhang Jinchuan, a former scout, managed to untie his own bonds, allowing him to escape the terrorists’ gunfire. He hid in a mountain gully until he found an opportunity to call for help via satellite phone.
Additionally, foreign media, citing Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, reported that the militants were dressed in paramilitary police uniforms from Gilgit. “They kidnapped two guides and used them to reach the (incident) area. One guide was killed; the other is alive, currently in custody and being questioned.”
Pakistani PM demands full investigation, Taliban claims revenge for U.S. drone strike
The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan confirmed the deaths of Chinese citizens that day, and the Foreign Ministry spokesperson's office stated that China was deeply shocked by the violent attack and strongly condemned it.
According to the latest news, the bodies of the victims have all been flown to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. The embassy also urgently coordinated with the Pakistani military to provide security protection and assistance to Zhang Jinchuan, who has now safely arrived at the embassy. The Chinese Foreign Ministry and the embassy in Pakistan have also activated emergency mechanisms to continue handling the matter properly and will provide full assistance for the repatriation of the survivors and the aftermath of the victims.
The Pakistani Taliban “claimed responsibility” for the attack on the 23rd. Spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said it was carried out by an armed faction affiliated with the Taliban, aiming to avenge the death of Taliban leader Mullah Waliur Rehman, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in May this year.
It is reported that the Gilgit region is close to the Himalayas, with many peaks being popular climbing destinations for mountaineers, and violent incidents are rare.
Pakistani Interior Minister Nisar admitted that foreign tourists climbing in the region had no police or security force protection.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the violent incident that day: “Such cruel and inhumane acts are intolerable, and (Pakistan) will do its utmost to ensure the safety of tourists.” He demanded a full investigation into the attack.
Sharif offered condolences to the victims: “The Pakistani government and people share your pain and stand with you at this moment.”
The Pakistani government vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice. Pakistani state television reported that the top officials of the Gilgit regional government and police department were dismissed on the 23rd.
Domestic “mountain friends” mourn collectively: Died in attack, “died too unjustly”
Our reporter contacted Yang Chunfeng’s assistant Mariam last night, but she said she was comforting the families and was too emotionally upset to be interviewed.
Meanwhile, “mountain friends” on Weibo have been writing tributes.
Chen Siqi, a member of the “Qianjiang Evening News Mountaineering Team” who successfully summited Mount Everest in 2006, also expressed condolences to Yang Chunfeng and Rao Jianfeng in an interview with our reporter.
“I was told about this news by a friend in Pakistan this morning,” Chen Siqi said. “I’m truly shocked. They were all outstanding mountaineers, and Rao Jianfeng was a great ‘comrade-in-arms’ who summited Everest with me.”
“What’s even more heartbreaking is that they didn’t die in a mountaineering accident, but at the hands of terrorists,” Chen Siqi said. “To put it bluntly, for mountaineers, dying on the mountain could be considered ‘dying where one belongs,’ but dying like this is truly too unjust, too heartbreaking.”
The three mountaineering experts once successfully challenged K2
On July 31 last year, Yang Chunfeng, Rao Jianfeng, and Zhang Jingchuan successfully summited K2 (also known as Mount Godwin-Austen), the world’s second-highest peak renowned for its climbing difficulty, via the Pakistani south side. They broke the nearly three-year record of no successful summits on the K2 south side and became the first group of Han Chinese mountaineers to reach the summit of the peak.
Yang Chunfeng, 45, from Xinjiang, was a professional high-altitude mountain guide who had successfully climbed 10 of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 meters before his death.
Rao Jianfeng, 49, from Guangdong, started mountaineering in 2001 and had summited 10 peaks above 8,000 meters before his death.
Zhang Jingchuan, 42, from Kunming, was an amateur mountaineer who had reached the summits of three peaks over 8,000 meters.