4 missing tourists found dead along river bank in Pakistan's Skardu

Tariq Butt, Gulf Today Correspondent

Four tourists from Gujrat, Punjab province, who went missing in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) on May 16 were finally found dead on Saturday morning at the bank of Indus River near Istak village in Roundu valley of Skardu.

Family sources said Wasif Shahzad, 36, and Umar Ehsan, 20, both cousins from Kot Gakka near Mangowal; Salman Nasrullah Sandhu, 23, of Jassoki village; and Usman Dar, 23, of Saroki had arrived in Gilgit on May 13.

After families reported them missing, police launched a search operation across checkpoints and mountainous areas. CCTV footage later showed their car on the Jaglot-Skardu road at 10:37am on May 16 in the Sasi area.

However, there was no record of the vehicle passing through the Dambodas checkpoint.

The car was eventually located on Friday in a deep gorge near Ganji Padi, a dangerous stretch of the road. Rescue 1122 officials confirmed three bodies were found inside the wreckage and one outside. Local police, rescue teams, and tourist police participated in the recovery effort.

Gilgit range Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Raja Mirza Hassan said that according to police records, the four friends had started their travel from Hunza to Skardu on May 15. On the way they had stayed in a hotel near Karakoram at Danyor in Gilgit.

The four friends had resumed their journey to Skardu on May 16 and since then their mobile phones could not be reached.

Skardu Deputy Commissioner Arif Ahmad confirmed that the location of the missing tourists’ vehicle has been traced near Satak Nala.

The vehicle had fallen into a deep gorge on the bank of the river below the Baltistan Highway after an accident.

Rescue 1122 and other rescue teams had been immediately dispatched to the scene to retrieve the bodies of the victims. The relatives of the deceased youth were also taken to the accident site.

DIG Hassan said the last location of the missing friends was Jaglot town in Gilgit. Citing the travellers’ reported plan, he said they were supposed to arrive at Skardu’s Istak area. He said their whereabouts could not be traced by search teams till Saturday.

The GB police and Rescue 1122 had been jointly searching for the missing friends at Jaglot-Skardu from Jaglot to Istak, according to the DIG.

An official of Rescue 1122 said the car which was travelling to Skardu fell down in a deep ditch around 500 feet below the road.