MANSEHRA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have honoured the voluntary services rendered by members of indigenous community and officials of forest department in searching for the missing Irish mountaineer Alexander earlier this month in Siren Valley.
‘I have no words to admire your voluntary services in the search for the Irish mountaineer in the dense alpine forest,’ Nasir Mehmood Satti, deputy inspector general of police, Hazara Range, told the community members and forest department officials at a ceremony on Wednesday.
The Irish mountaineer, who worked with an international non-governmental organisation in Islamabad, had gone missing while descending from the over 13,500-foot-high Musa Da Mussala Peak in Siren Valley amid rough weather.
He was recovered from a gorge in the dense alpine forests of Paracha Khatta in Siren Valley on September 2 this year.
Mr Satti, who had personally led the search operation summoned divisional forest officer Siren Valley Shahzad Anjum, forest guard Mohammad Zeeshan and members of the indigenous community including Shah Khan and his wife.
‘You (forest officials and the couple) extended your all-out help and support by physically taking part in the search operation along with a heavy contingent of police, Rescue 1122 and mountaineering groups, which is highly commendable,’ the DIG said.
The Irish mountaineer, Alexander, who had separated from his British friend Alun David Cooper Cledwyn and local guide while descending from Musa Da Mussala peak, slipped amid dense fog and rainy weather after summiting the highest peak of Musa Da Mussala in Siren Valley.
The search operation involving more than 250 police personnel assisted by two groups of mountaineers trained in such operations, members of the indigenous community familiar with navigating Siren Valley and Forest Department officials continued for three days despite bad weather and dense fog.