Pakistani civilians in Islamabad hold posters and placards in protest against the militants' attack on foreign tourists in Nanga Parbat. Photo: EPA/W. Khan
“There is quite a lot of chaos, but they are all safe,” said Daniel Piskorz, coordinator of the Poles' expedition, in an interview with Polish Radio.
“They are still waiting for a caravan which will take their luggage,” he said.
“They will book their tickets and return to Poland.”
Piskorz revealed that statements are being taken by the Pakistani military.
Initial information about the killings has now been supplemented, and it has been confirmed that besides Chinese, Russian and Ukrainian nationals, an American, a Slovak, a Nepali, a Pakistani and a Lithuanian were also murdered.
The climbers, who were at base camp at Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest peak in the world, were ambushed late on Saturday evening by about fifteen armed men.
The attackers, dressed in uniforms of local security forces, are understood to have blindfolded the climbers, forced them to kneel, and then shot them in the back of the heads.
“It was an execution,” Piskorz told commercial Polish radio station RMF FM.
All passports and money were taken by the assailants, and mobile phones were destroyed.
Local guides had reportedly been forced to take the gunmen to the base camp at 4200m.
At the camp, Pakistani staff were tied up and separated from the group. A Chinese man is also understood to have survived.
The Taliban has claimed that the action was carried out by the affiliated Jundul Hafsa group in revenge for a US drone attack that killed their deputy leader, Waliur Rehman.
Saturday's killings mark the first such attack on foreign tourists in Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan. (nh)
Source: IAR/BBC