Three Iranian mountaineers missing in Northern Pakistan

They last got in touch with their homeland via satellite phone on Saturday.

ISLAMABAD: The head of a mountaineering club said on Sunday that rescuers have called off their search for three Iranian mountain climbers who went missing in the northern areas of Pakistan, Associated Press reported.

President of Pakistan Alpine Club Manzoor Hussain said on Sunday that his outfit had been coordinating with the expedition, and that the three mountaineers from Iran had successfully ascended the 8,051 meter (26,414 feet) Broad Peak.

The men had sent a call for help last Tuesday while descending the peak, saying that they were exhausted and had run out of food, he said.

Hussain added that the rescue teams had been dispatched but had failed to find them. A helicopter search was called off on Sunday.

He said that the three men had last been in touch with their homeland via satellite phone on Saturday.

On June 23, gunmen dressed as paramilitary forces killed nine foreign tourists in an unprecedented attack in the Himalayas of Gilgit-Baltistan, in a security failure bound to embarrass the new government just weeks after it took office.

The gunmen stormed into the Nanga Parbat base camp, where the tourists had been camping, and killed the Chinese and Ukrainian climbers in an area of the far-flung north not previously associated with violence or militancy.