Nanga Parbat tragedy survivor: Cash-strapped man ready to sell his kidneys to clear debt

Afsar Jan says he has spent all savings on his ailing wife’s treatment

GILGIT: A survivor of the terror attack on mountaineers in Nanga Parbat, Afsar Jan, is looking for a buyer for either one or both of his kidneys as a last resort to pay off his debt.

The debt, which is slightly in excess of Rs0.6 million, accumulated as Jan’s wife underwent a heart surgery at the Aga Khan Hospital in Karachi in 2013. The surgery came days after gunmen stormed a base camp of Nanga Parbat, killing nine foreign climbers. Jan was part of the expedition as a cook but escaped the wrath of the attackers who, he said were looking for foreigners. Once the killers fled, Jan reportedly helped soldiers move the bodies to hospitals.



“I’m a poor man and my kidney is my last hope,” says Jan, who lives in Aliabad, Hunza. A small cabin where he makes and sells tea is the only source of income for 45-year-old Jan, his two sons and the ailing wife, who underwent heart surgeries in 2000 and 2007 at the same hospital.

He said, “I have spent whatever I had on my wife’s treatment. What is left now are my kidneys and I seek a buyer for those immediately,” Jan told The Express Tribune by telephone.

Jan’s brother, an employee at Aga Khan Hospital, paid the hospital bills initially in installments. He commented, “But then he also surrendered.”

He pointed out, “I have a small piece of land in Hunza that I do not want to sell as it belongs to my sons,”

The prolonged illness of his wife, coupled with shrinking income opportunities, seems to have weighed heavily on the otherwise strong-nerved climber. He lamented, “I thought of committing suicide then decided against it as a paralysed life is better than no life.”



Jan appears wary of his relatives’ cold shoulder too, saying no one offered him even consolation in those testing times, let alone financial assistance. But then a watchdog activist came to his aid. “I know this man since long and also his honesty and hard work,” said Babar Khan, president of National Peace and Justice Council of Pakistan in Hunza. He said, “Our meeting is scheduled with G-B Governor Mir Ghazanfar and Rani Atiqa on June 4 (today) and we are hopeful about a positive outcome,” Khan told The Express Tribune on Saturday.

The plight of Jan came under discussion in the social media too, with some offering their support and others consolation. Rani Atiqa, who is the wife of the governor and a lawmaker herself, asked for Jan’s contact details on her Facebook wall. Another comment read “Hunza is a small place and everyone knows each other, yet it is a pity he has suffered for so long.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2016.