August 24, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Saani 14, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 23: The renowned mountaineer and a conqueror of Mount Everest, Nazir Sabir, has left for Switzerland to participate in a peace climb in the Aletsch region of Swiss Alps from August 23 to Sept 2.

The climb has been organized by the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) with the support of the International Nature Conservation Union (IUCN) as part of celebrations in connection with International Year of the Mountains-2002.

One of the objectives of the climb is to draw international attention towards the environmental disaster, which has besieged the longest glacier outside the Polar regions — the Siachen Glacier and its surrounding high mountains in the Karakoram range.

This serious threat to local ecology of this region has occurred as a consequence of the 18 years long military conflict between Pakistan and India, which was sparked by the illegal occupation of the region by the Indian army in 1984.

Nazir Sabir, the first Pakistani to climb the Mount Everest in 2000 is accompanied by Col Sher Khan (retired), another reputed climber from Northern Areas.

Both the climbers will attempt to project Pakistan’s point of view on the issue and endeavour to move the international media and build pressure on the Indian government to vacate the Siachen area in consideration of serious damage.

Two active environmentalists and climbers from India, Harish Kapadia and Mandip Singh Soin, will also join the peace climb to project the theme “Peace for the sake of environments”.

It is hoped the IUCN and UIAA, with the support of the climbers from Pakistan and India would be able to build pressure on respective government to achieve peace in Siachen area through extensive media coverage of the peace climb. After the peace climb in Switzerland, Nazir Sabir will be attending a world congress of mountaineers being held in the town of Innsbruck in Austria on September 6-8.

Mr Sabir is expected to return back by September 10.