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NEWS: Ten Killed in Nanga Parbat Attack

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 UKC News 23 Jun 2013
Nanga Parbat, 3 kbGunmen have killed ten people at the Nanga Parbat base camp. Nine foreigners from Russia, China and the Ukraine died in the attack, along with one Pakistani guide

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=68148
 The Ivanator 23 Jun 2013
In reply to UKC News: Shocking and mindless. Thoughts go out to those who are left bereaved by this atrocity.
In reply to UKC News:

Unbelievable... Tragic.
 goose299 23 Jun 2013
In reply to UKC News:
Absolutely awful news
 L.A. 23 Jun 2013
In reply to purplemonkeyelephant: Whist it is terribly tragic I feel it can hardly be unexpected. Soft western/foreign targets who are known to be in an area with little military presence or security in a region that has fairly easily access for militants. Im honestly surprised that it hasnt happened years ago.
However that doesnt make it any better for those left behind and my condolences go out to them
Aldaris 25 Jun 2013
In reply to L.A.:
Yeah, its really "expected" to kill russians, eastern europeans and chinese because americans kill talibans with drones. Logical.
 Banned User 77 25 Jun 2013
In reply to Aldaris: He's right though.. I doubt they really care who the foreigners are.. it's just press generation, fear and terrorising..

Security is understandably so poor in many of these states it's easy attacks; I'm actualy surprised there aren't more. I've spent time right up in the North of India, not far from the Pakistan border, and up there we were warned in a few places that police response is so slow its pretty lawless or self governed.
 Phil1919 25 Jun 2013
In reply to Aldaris: I guess they are sort of lashing out as they feel a bit helpless like we all do at times. It may not be logical but understandable.
 dale1968 25 Jun 2013
In reply to Phil1919: are you for real?
 Banned User 77 25 Jun 2013
In reply to Phil1919: I can't see how its understandable to murder 10 innocent people at all.. not even in the slightest.

Mindless murder by violent thugs who will follow any cause.
 L.A. 25 Jun 2013
In reply to Aldaris: Do you really think the average Talib tribesman can differentiate between US/ Russian/any white-skinned person ?(and probably not even Chinese climbers)
As long as youre not Talib then youre perceived as enemy. (Even locals) and yes, I have spent time in both Afghanistan and Pakistan
 Phil1919 25 Jun 2013
In reply to Phil1919: I'm just trying to get into the minds of these people who did it. They are obviously not mindless thugs. I can go along to a football match and find them. I'm wondering how they view Americans dropping drones into valleys and killing families minding their own business in these wonderful parts of Pakistan. Apparently Americas presence in Afghanistan for ten years has pushed the extremists into Pakistan. Its obviously tragic but there is more to it than a mindless act of violence.
 Damo 25 Jun 2013
In reply:

I don't really have the heart to argue about this, it's just terrible, but to re-post what I put somewhere else in a similar thread:


Debating what is 'logical' here, as has been done on a number of sites, is irrelevant. This is an act of hate, not logic. Even if the attackers understood* the distinction between the nationalities, they did not necessarily care. It was a deliberate attack on foreign tourists, non-combatants in any war, for revenge (and robbery) and to repel tourists from the area, hurting the government, depriving the real locals of income and limiting contact with outsiders for political gain. Mere bandits don't need to do this, and in this area, would not.

I'm no fan of the drone program and I empathise with the locals who get caught up in it all. But any implication of moral equivalence between the two acts, that even hints at justifying some kind of tit-for-tat, is both ignorant and pointlessly insensitive. If anyone thinks the US is deliberately targeting civilian non-combatants they should get active with their government and raise a voice - not turn it on this event.

I've been to the Karakoram four times, three of those times going past this area en route to Hunza. I've even been caught in Sunni-Shia riots in Gilgit. I always knew something like this may one day happen, but it would be inaccurate to say I expected it and I certainly hoped it would never happen.




*I'm a 6'7" white guy and I've been asked in Hunza if I'm from Japan. The levels of basic education and knowledge of the outside world are worse than many people realise. This is one of the main reasons groups like the Taliban can take hold. They fill a void.
 Phil1919 25 Jun 2013
In reply to Damo: No I've no heart for it either. Terrible event. But its certainly not black and white. We're pulling out of Afganhistan after ten years and already the heart of the government is getting hit.
 Banned User 77 25 Jun 2013
In reply to Phil1919: This was before 9/11.... the Taliban were stoning women to death without US involvement.. ludicrous claims Clint.. Mindless thugs.. very black and white.
Aldaris 25 Jun 2013
In reply to L.A.: Got the point. Still sad. And they got their newsflash, so well done .
ice.solo 26 Jun 2013
In reply to UKC News:

indeed bad shit. but complex.

the area its in (raikhot) is notorious for unrest, and has seen foreigners harassed and several incidents of killings over a long time. tho certainly not like this. several foreigners have gone missing in isolated incidents on trips out from gilgit to fairy meadows, a once popular backpackers destination at the base of NP. one, a japanese girls, body showed up with the throat cut in 1998 (i think that was the year).
last year 80-odd foreigners were stranded in gilgit when stirred up locals blocked the highway in late spring after the annual battle with the shias in kohistan got out of control.

personally ive been held in a small town north of chilas for a night by armed locals, whilst a military escort negotiated that we could pass.
10 years ago also i was there during an arthquake that destroyed the famous raikhot bridge and a large group had to negotiate with the loacls via the military to walk safely around the landslips and bridge.
these folk dont want to see outsiders plain and simple, drones overhead or not.

kohistan has always been nasty. kipling mentions it. gilgit has long been an outpost of taliban fermentation within its volatile mix of sunni, shia, shina, ismaili and pashtun. not far south of NP is besham, a major arms manufacturing center and the backdoor route to swat that has seen a lot of foreign interest over the last 4 decades, ranging from hippies and western mercenaries to arms smuggling and refugees.
chinese construction crews have upset the balance of both culture and economics the length of the KKH. for several years gilgit was the staging ground for special operations north of hunza, with foreigners using the airbase there. chitral to the west has a similar recent history.

the kohistani tribes that did this may well be within the talibans sphere of influence, but they have always attacked outsiders (including pakistani military) and neighbouring tribes. the taliban will be just cashing in on their existing attitude rather than inspiring them.

none of this justifies what happened at NP. that was a massacre and brigandry as much as it was terrorism. it will only intensify the scenario as security forces get wound up in how to deal with it (pakistan has very different groups depending on how the incident is defined), the remaining foreign interest in visiting plummets further (numbers are already a shadow of what they were 10 years ago, with groups like the russians and chinese making up a big part of those who still went there) and the area further descends into the effects of economic collapse and security limbo.

meanwhile, in qatar, the situation further weirds out as spokesmen that claim to represent the people who did this invite kerry and karzai to tea and the taliban suddenly are being treated as if they are a rational force even tho they explicitly target teenage schoolgirls, hospitals and tourists.
 Phil1919 26 Jun 2013
In reply to IainRUK: Well I agree with you to the point that they will no doubt be male, between 15 and say 35, in fact the archtype mindless thugs that you get in many situations, especially when drink is involved in the UK for example. So that's black and white, but the circumstances in which has brought this mindless violence out isn't.
 Damo 26 Jun 2013
In reply to UKC News:

Some interesting background on those who claim responsibility for the attack:
http://altitudepakistan.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/nanga-parbat-massacre-who-i...
ice.solo 27 Jun 2013
In reply to UKC News:

and sadly ali. am only finding this now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23047167

as the article reads, he was instrumental in fostering education in hushe, with a program many who spent time in the area would have helped support.
if the article is correct, it was because of this, and being shia that he was killed.

thats f*cked.

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