GILGIT: Samar Khan, 25-year-old adventure biker, has become the first Pakistani to climb the 6,250-metre Burbucho peak in Arandu area of Shigar district.

After her climb, the peak has been named ‘Samar Peak’.

Resident of Islamabad, Ms Khan has also made a national record of cycling on the peak.

Earlier, she had also cycled on the Biafo glacier, last year, travelling all the way from Islamabad to Khunjerab and Skardu.

The young mountaineer arrived in Skardu on May 14 to summit the Burbuncho peak.

She was accompanied by local mountaineers Ali Ahmed Khan and Taqi Sarwar.

The team started the climb from Shigar Arandu on May 17.

From Skardu to Arandu, the base camp of Burbucho peak, Samar Khan travelled on bicycle. The team completed climbing the peak in six days.

After the successful summit, the team members arrived in Skardu on Thursday.

Ayaz Shigri, general secretary of Baltistan association of tour operators, told this correspondent that the biker had taken her bike with her while climbing the peak. On top of the peak, Ms Khan cycled on glacier and pitched Pakistani flag there.

Talking to mediapersons before her departure for Islamabad in Skardu, Samar Khan said it was an adventurous journey for her.

It was my desire to climb the peaks in GB and cycle on the top, she said.

“There is no precedent to cycle on mountains, so I did it,” she said.

She said there were abundant opportunities of adventure tourism in GB. However, she said bad condition of roads affected the tourism industry.

She said she wanted to create awareness about adventure tourism in GB.

NUTRITION PROJECT LAUNCHED: The GB department of planning and development and Unicef have launched a secretariat for the ‘scaling-up nutrition’ (SUN) movement in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The SUN movement will support all levels of government for bringing together governments, civil society, the United Nations, donors, businesses and researchers in a collective effort to improve nutrition.

In line with the global commitment, Pakistan was the 34th country to have joined the SUN movement in January 2013 and agreed to establish its secretariats at national and provincial levels.

Gilgit-Baltistan, being the 5th interim province, joins the SUN movement by integrating its efforts with international stakeholders and adopting the multispectral nutrition strategy in the region.

Addressing the SUN launching event, GB Chief Minister Hafeezur Rehman said in line with the national commitment for adoption of SUN strategy in early 2013, GB government had fully owned the movement at provincial level and activities have been initiated through the establishment of SUN unit at planning and development department.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2017