By Shehzad Anwar / Shabbir Mir in The Express Tribune, Sept 27th, 2014.
ISLAMABAD / GILGIT: The government of Gilgit–Baltistan (G-B) is finding it hard to deal with the scars left by the Nanga Parbat massacre last year. The June 22, 2013 attack at the base camp for the 8,126-metre-high Nanga Parbat, Pakistan’s second-highest mountain, was one of the deadliest assaults on foreigners in the country. At least 10 foreign climbers and their Pakistani guide were killed in the attack and the tourism industry, which employed over 10,000 families here, was left reeling.
Sources at the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) told The Express Tribune that the number of adventure tourists visiting Pakistan for expeditions declined by 20 to 30 per cent after the incident. The numbers have only started to creep up slowly this year, sources said. Sources at PTDC said tourists are hesitant to go to Gilgit-Baltistan, Hunza Valley, and Karimabad through the Karakoram Highway as travellers must move in groups from Bisham, Shangla and Kohistan with a police escort.
Nasir Hussain, a tour operator based in Islamabad, says there has been a marked decline in trekking and mountain expeditions since the tragedy. “Our company has lost 75 per cent of its business this year, which includes groups that would travel to K2, Nanga Parbat and Raka Poshi,” said Hussain. He believes the government needs to tackle the perception of G-B.
“Aside from the Nanga Parbat incident, G-B is peaceful and the authorities need to convey that to foreigners.” Similarly, Hidayat Ullah, a Gilgit-based tour operator, says, “The Nanga Parbat tragedy is not what G-B and its people have to offer and our visitors must know this.”
“That was a nasty blow meant to tarnish the soft image of G-B,” agrees information minister Sadia Danish. In a desperate move to counter the memory of the attack, the G-B government organised the Silk Route Festival in September 2013 and invited foreign delegates from 16 countries to the three-day event, held in Skardu, Hunza, Nagar and Gilgit.
However, this year, the Silk Route Festival had to be shelved due to political turmoil in the capital. Protest demonstrations staged by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek triggered security concerns for foreign delegates, and many suspended their trip to G-B. Meanwhile, the polo festival at Fairy Meadows was suspended due to the floods.
Government squabbles have also affected tourist events here. Earlier in July, for instance, officials from G-B boycotted the Shandur polo festival in protest of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s ‘monopolising attitude’ towards arrangements, saying Shandur is a part of Gilgit-Baltistan and therefore, its officials should have greater say in arrangements.http://tribune.com.pk/story/767902/expeditions-to-nanga-parbat-take-a-hit-after-2013-massacre/
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