Ukraine condemns attack on climbers in Pakistan

Published June 24, 2013
Pakistani security personnel and rescuers gather around ambulance moving coffins with foreign tourists at a hospital in Islamabad on June 23, 2013. - Photo by AFP
Pakistani security personnel and rescuers gather around ambulance moving coffins with foreign tourists at a hospital in Islamabad on June 23, 2013. - Photo by AFP

KIEV: Ukraine on Monday condemned the shooting of three Ukrainian climbers by gunmen in Pakistan and demanded compensation for the victims' families.

Attackers stormed a base camp at the foot of Pakistan's second-highest peak Nanga Parbat late Saturday, shooting dead 10 foreign trekkers, including three Ukrainians and a Pakistani guide at point-blank range.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yevgen Perebiynis at a news conference condemned the “terrorist attack” and said the government had sent a note to Pakistan's acting representative in Ukraine calling for compensation and punishment of the guilty.

“We categorically demand compensation from the Pakistan side,” he said, calling the attack “murder carried out with particular cruelty.”

The three Ukrainians, identified as Igor Svergun, Dmitry Konyaev and Badavi Kashayev, were travelling in a group of six from the climbing club in the eastern city of Kharkiv, the president of the region's mountaineering and rock-climbing federation, Gennady Kopeika, told AFP.

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