Frozen in Time
A shepherd in Pakistan’s remote Kohistan region has made a chilling discovery the perfectly preserved body of a man who vanished nearly 30 years ago, exposed by a melting glacier.
The find was made on 1 August in the Supat Valley, also known as Lady Valley, when Omar Khan stumbled across a fully clothed body lying in the ice.
What I have seen is unthinkable,” Khan said in the BBC. “The body was complete. Clothes were not even damaged.”
An identity card discovered on the man indicated his name as Naseeruddin. Police identified him, and locals began coming forth with information on how he had vanished.
A Mystery Frozen for Decades
Naseeruddin is reported to have disappeared in June 1997 in a raging snowstorm after tumbling into a glacier crevice. He was riding horseback with his brother, Kathiruddin, having fled their home in Palas Valley due to a family feud.
On the day that he went missing, the brothers had arrived in Supat Valley in the morning. Naseeruddin went into a cave later in the afternoon but never returned. When he did not come back, Kathiruddin looked for him before calling for help, but their efforts were futile.
Naseeruddin, who had a wife and two children left behind, had been lost until now.
Climate Change Melts the Past
Experts opine that the preservation of the body is caused by the freezing environment of the glacier, which stops decomposing. Professor Muhammad Bilal at Comsats University described low oxygen and humidity levels resulting in natural mummification in ice.
Yet this finding also underlines an unsettling fact. Climatologists warn that global warming is accelerating glacial melting throughout Pakistan’s northern provinces, such as Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral a region commonly referred to as The Third Pole due to its large reserves of ice.
A 2023 International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development report cautioned that the Himalayan glaciers may lose as much as two-thirds of their volume by the turn of the century if current carbon emissions persist.
The Supat Valley discovery is not only a family closure for Naseeruddin’s family it also brings into sharp focus how melting ice is shaping landscapes and uncovering secrets locked away for decades.
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