08/06/2023
The Lake Not seen!
My friend Inam Munir (late) long wished to see the serenity of this Majestic lake "Shaitan Gwat" , for this purpose he left for kalam on 27th of July with his team ,marched through the lush meadows of puli sar and then bresan and desan Banda , was in a very fine state of health, enjoying and capturing every moment, reached Gudar lake, and spent a night over there. Next day, started his trek for gudar pass via zamarud glaciers, one of the largest glaciers of swat, his group was split into two, one comprising of senior trekkers who left for kandolo and he along with a newbie trekker planned to divert for shaitan gwat lake.. Here comes the tragic part, weather changes, his health deteriorates, probably suffers from Acute mountain sickness , gets confused, can't navigate and the other newbie is of no help, they both try to follow the other trekkers who left for kandolo side,and instead of going through gudar pass trek towards Kandolo pass, Inam munir's condition improves and worsens periodically, as the weather condition deteriorates further , they decide to camp over there, probably his fellow erects a tent, gives him medication and shelter and lefts out to find the other Fellow trekkers to seek help, but little did he know about the Map of this area and couldn't navigate either in that foggy dusk, searching for help, running here and there probably he gets distracted and in the dark injures himself, in agony and fear forgets about Inam munir runs for his life and eventually somehow reaches shaitan gwat lake, survives a night over there without shelter or anything and next morning descends to sar banda lake where he is rescued by either locals or other trekkers, there he tells his rescuers about Inam munir that had been left behind but when he tells them that he was an expert trekker they think he might have made a way out and would have descended to kandolo side where the other team had gone .. The rescuer team carried the injured newbie trekker in more than 14 hours to kedam and then fetched to swat for further treatment .
What happens to Inam?
He was there in the tent, his condition deteriorates due to Probable HAPE /HACE, suffers shortness of breath, gets out of the tent, become drowsy, lays on a straight rock near, sleeps and sleeps forever, its speculated that he passed away that night!!
When the other team reaches swat, they try to call Inam but upon not reaching him they call his team mate who narrates the whole story, they become worried and go to inam's home to find out whether he has returned back or not, his family gets stupefied by seeing them without Inam. They all make quick decisions, trekking society is informed, teams are made and then after a long search of 2 days and nights his dead body is found just few hundreds meters far from a pass, from where his dream lake Shaitan Gwat could be seen !!
His body was retrieved from an altitude of more than 14500 fts by expert trekkers and volunteers from swat Seath Noman Khalil , Sayyed Zeeshan Umer, Sadam kalami and others. they did extreme efforts to make this possible by defying all odds, fighting hunger, extreme weather, tough route and also carying the 75 Kg Co**se! Big salute to all of them..
Many questions are unanswered!! His postmortem report is being awaited, Also police has been investigating the matter.!!.
May his soul rest in peace.
He lived a good life, what he liked....
