Three killed in Wakhan Corridor avalanche

ISLAMABAD: Three members of a 17-member carvan were killed when they were hit by an avalanche on the Wakhan Corridor, Pak-Afghan border.

The three men killed in the caravan were traders.

They were coming from Pamir (Afghanistan) to Chipursan valley of Gojal in upper Hunza. Other members of the caravan escaped unhurt and returned to Afghanistan where the reported the news to a relative in Pindi.

The dead were identified as Ita'at Shah, Qurban Baig and Saeed Ahmad Khan.

CAI clarification:

The three men killed in the avalanche while travelling from Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor to Pakistan’s Charpusan Valley were not Central Asia Institute employees (CAI) but yak traders.

CAI’s program manager in Wakhan confirmed on Tuesday that the three men killed - Ita’at Shah, Qurban Baig and Saeed Ahmad Khan - were travelling with four CAI masons who do seasonal work with CAI in Wakhan, training local men in construction trades.

All seven men were from Charpusan Valley.

The Wakhi people have familial ties on both sides of the border and traders have travelled this route for decades.

The men affiliated with CAI were higher up the mountain than the traders and their yaks when the avalanche cut loose.

According to the CAI program manager, the men were all headed home for winter, but the early snowfall in the 16,329-foot-high Irshad Pass caught them off guard.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the men that were killed belonged to an NGO run by Greg Mortenson.