MANSEHRA: Heavy fog and sporadic rain on Tuesday hampered efforts to locate the Irish mountaineer who has gone missing while descending from the over 13,500-foot-high Musa Da Musalla peak in Siran Valley.

“The search operation using sniffer dogs and drones has yet to establish the whereabouts of the missing foreign mountaineer, as 15 teams actively pursuing the task face rough weather conditions, heavy fog and oxygen deficiency,” DIG Hazara Nasir Mehmood Satti told reporters.

The search operation, which was suspended on Monday night due to fog and harsh weather, commenced the next morning to locate the mountaineer, who went missing on August 30.

Mr Alexander, along with a British national, Alun David Cooper Cledwyn, had gone to Siran Valley to summit Musa Da Musalla peak on August 28 without obtaining a no-objection certificate from the police and other relevant departments.

The police also inquired of Mr Cledwyn about the circumstances which led the Irish mountaineer to land in trouble.

“We have so far focused on the three infrequent and difficult tracks, which led to Musa Da Musalla peak, and vice versa,” Mr Satti said.

The DIG said that his department, which had already deployed over 250 personnel, also got help from two mountaineering groups trained in such operations, indigenous community members familiar with navigating the Siran Valley and officials of the forest department.

“I am cautiously optimistic that we could trace the whereabouts of the missing foreigner within the next 12 hours,” Mr Satti said.

GAS SUPPLY: Owners of CNG stations across Hazara on Tuesday asked the federal government to end the 20-hour suspension of gas supply to their sector in the division.

“The government has allowed us only four hours of CNG supply, rendering labourers jobless and adversely affecting our businesses,” Qaiser Abbasi, the vice-president of Hazara CNG Owners Association, told reporters here.

Flanked by other office-bearers of the association, he said Sui Northern Gas Pipelines had fixed a quota of nine million cubic feet per day for the CNG sector in Hazara.

“Even if we operate throughout the day, we cannot consume the entire quota. Despite this, we are forced to suspend gas supply to vehicles for 20 hours a day,” Mr Abbasi said.

He said around 130 CNG stations were operating across Hazara, providing direct employment to over 1,000 workers and indirect employment to around 260 others.

He alleged that the quota allocated to the CNG sector was being diverted to other sectors, adversely affecting their industry.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2026