The body of a man missing for nearly 30 years has been found in a melting glacier in remote Pakistan.
Father-of-two Naseeruddin, 33, was travelling on horseback with his brother through Kohistan in June 1997.
Hearing gunfire, the two men fled, with Naseeruddin sprinting into a nearby cave in the snow-capped mountains of Lady Valley – he never came out.
Despite an extensive search organised by his brother, Kathiruddin, no trace of Naseeruddin was ever found, his family told The Express Tribune.
Local shepherd Umar Khan discovered the hiker’s body 28 years later, on August 1, inside a glacier, which has been melting for years.
Khan told BBC Urdu that the body was ‘completely intact’, his clothing wasn’t torn and he was still carrying his ID card.
‘What I saw was unbelievable,’ he added.
Naseeruddin fled from the area as his family were squabbling with an ‘enemy family’, his brother, Kathiruddin, said.
Naseeruddin was finally buried on Tuesday, leaving behind a son and daughter in their 20s.
Son Naeem said he hasn’t stepped into his hometown for years in the daylight because of the family feud.
‘Now I have come with my father’s body,’ he said.
‘The pain of travelling to his native area with my father after so many years cannot be described in words.’
Police confirmed the identity of the remains as that of Naseeruddin, from Saleh Khel, a village by the Cherat mountains, home to various tribes.
On the day he disappeared, the two men often visited Alai, a nearby village, to buy livestock and horses to sell for money.
They were travelling home but took a more remote route due to the ongoing family feud when they were separated.
‘I turned back and reached the place where I saw that my brother had gone inside the cave, but there was nothing there,’ said Kathiruddin.
What happens when a human is frozen?
When we think of humans freezing, one thing that might come to mind is cryonics, storing bodies at deep freeze until the future.
But the human body cannot survive being frozen, which happens quickly in glacier conditions.
The body cannot survive even the smallest internal temperature change from 37°C; hypothermia happens two degrees less than that.
Glaciers are full of ice, and people can’t survive with ice in their bodies. By the time someone’s insides reach 0°C, most cells and organs are already dead.
If someone becomes trapped in a glacier, the lack of air and moisture causes the body to mummify, slowing down decomposition.
There are no examples of humans being brought back to life after being thawed, according to experts.
After Naseeruddin’s body was found, the bad blood between the families made burying him in his hometown almost impossible.
But the locals held a jirga, when tribal representatives hold a meeting, to put in place a nine-day ‘ceasefire’ between the families.
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