The body of a man who has been missing for almost three decades was found in a melting glacier this week.
According to the broadcaster, it was a sheepherder who stumbled upon the body:
"What I saw was unbelievable. The body was intact, and the clothes weren't even torn," the shepherd, Omar Khan, told BBC Urdu.
Disappeared after family quarrel
The body was found in Lady Valley in Pakistan's remote and mountainous Kohistan region.
Next to the body was an ID card with the name Naseeruddin.
The police have now managed to trace the ID card of a man who disappeared in the area in June 1997, after falling into a crevasse during a snowstorm.
Naseeruddin had a wife and two children when he disappeared. He was traveling with his brother on the fateful day - and according to local media, the brothers had traveled up the mountain after a family dispute.
"We ended up in the middle of a snowstorm, and Naseeruddin went into a small cave to seek cover. After that, he disappeared from me," his brother previously said.
After the storm, several locals joined in the search for Naseeruddin, but they never found him, writes BBC Urdu.
Climate change revealed the mystery
The Kohistan region has experienced less snowfall in recent years, which has exposed the glaciers to direct sunlight and caused them to melt faster.
Experts now say the body would not have been found if it weren't for climate change accelerating ice melt in the area.
"When a human body falls into a glacier, the extreme cold prevents decomposition," Muhammad Bilal, head of the environmental department at Comsats University Islamabad, explained in a statement.
The body is then mummified due to the lack of moisture and oxygen in the glacier, he continues:
- This is an extraordinary example of how nature can preserve a human being, but also a grim reminder of how climate change is now revealing secrets that have been hidden in the ice for decades.
Naseeruddin's family has not yet commented on the discovery in the media. However, according toKarachi News, the body was retrieved from the mountain on Monday this week and buried in a local cemetery on Tuesday.
