Frozen in time: Missing Pakistan man found with ID card as glacier melts in Kohistan after going missing in 1997

The remains of a man missing since 1997 have surfaced in a melting glacier in Pakistan’s Kohistan district. The body, still clothed and nearly intact, was found by a shepherd on 31 July near the Lady Meadows glacier, a remote stretch in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Beside the body was a national identity card. It read the name: Naseeruddin.

Kohistan District Police confirmed the discovery, saying the identification was straightforward. The face, clothes, and belongings hadn’t changed much. Everything had been sealed in ice for 28 years.

“What I saw was unbelievable,” said the shepherd, Omar Khan, speaking to BBC Urdu. “The body was intact. The clothes were not even torn.”

A journey that never ended

Naseeruddin wasn’t a mountaineer. He was a father of two and, by all accounts, a quiet man. He left his home in Palas on horseback with his brother Kathiruddin in June 1997.

They were fleeing a family feud, one violent enough to force them into the highlands.

According to multiple accounts from BBC Urdu and ARY News, the brothers rode into the Lady Valley and reached around morning. Later that day, Naseeruddin stepped into a nearby cave. That was the last time anyone saw him.

“I searched the cave myself,” Kathiruddin told BBC Urdu, “then I brought others to help. But we didn’t find him.”

They kept returning, but after several failed attempts and heavy snowfall, they gave up.

Sealed beneath ice

Experts believe Naseeruddin may have fallen into a crevasse during a snowstorm while trying to shelter inside the cave. Years passed. The glacier expanded and froze over. Then the ice began to melt.

“When a body enters a glacier, the extreme cold freezes it rapidly, halting decomposition,” explained Professor Muhammad Bilal, head of the Department of Environment at Comsats University Islamabad. “The absence of moisture and oxygen then causes mummification, which can preserve the remains for decades.”

That’s exactly what happened. With reduced snowfall and stronger sunlight hitting exposed ice, the glacier began to retreat. And in doing so, it gave up what it had hidden.

A family’s long wait ends

Naseeruddin had a wife and two small children when he disappeared. His family never stopped searching.

“Our family left no stone unturned to trace him over the years,” said his nephew, Malik Ubaid, to AFP. “Our uncles and cousins visited the glacier several times... but they eventually gave up as it wasn’t possible.”

Omar Khan, the man who found the body, told ARY News that he and his friends had been trekking when they stumbled across it. He temporarily buried it to protect the remains and later located the family.

The body was returned to his native village and buried on Wednesday. His relatives say they finally have closure.

Pakistan’s melting glaciers tell a bigger story

This is not just one man’s story. It's also a reflection of something bigger.

Pakistan is home to over 13,000 glaciers, more than anywhere else outside the polar regions. But those glaciers are shrinking. Rising temperatures and changing weather patterns have made them vulnerable to melt.

What this means is that other remains, perhaps more lives and lost stories, could be waiting beneath the ice.

Police officials, including District Officer Amjad Hussain, confirmed the case to ARY News and believe it’s another example of how climate change is reshaping even the most remote landscapes.

Tragedy strikes elsewhere in the mountains

Around the same time, another life was lost in Pakistan’s highlands. German Olympic gold medallist and world champion biathlete Laura Dahlmeier died in a climbing accident in the Baltistan region.

Faizullah Faraq, spokesperson for the PoGB government, told ARY News that Dahlmeier was killed in a landslide in the Shigar district. She had been climbing with another German climber, who survived. A rescue team recovered Dahlmeier’s body and is waiting for suitable weather to transport it by helicopter from base camp.

Naseeruddin’s body lay undisturbed for 28 years, preserved, unknown, but not forgotten.

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