BartaBangla Desk :: Bangladesh is in touch with the Nepal authorities to bring the remains of Mohammad Khaled Hossain Sajal, who died descending Mount Everest.
Khaled was the fifth Bangladeshi to stand on the world’s highest mountain.
Mohammad Moinul Hossain, First Secretary at the Bangladesh Embassy in Nepal, has confirmed bdnews24.com about the move on Thursday.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed us that the Bangladesh government will bear the cost for returning Sajal’s body from the Everest summit,” he said. “The process will cost USD 60,000.”
“We’ve already talked to the Sherpas. Ten of them will start in the morning of the day after tomorrow to carry the body to the base camp,” Hossain added.
Earlier, the family of the daredevil said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had assured them of getting his remains back to them.
The 35-year old mountaineer, popularly known as Sajal Khaled after he directed a children’s film, died on May 20 while coming down from the world’s tallest peak.
”The Prime Minister has communicated with our family,” Nasir Khan Shaikat, younger brother of the mountaineer’s wife Tahmina Khan Shoili, told bdnews24.com on Thursday evening.
”She has assured us of providing all sorts of support for getting Sajal Khaled’s body back,” he added.Musa Ibrahim, the first Bangladeshi to scale Mt Everest in 2010, also voiced similar feelings to bdnews24.com on Thursday morning.
“He (Khaled) went via Nepal’s Himalayan Guide Private Limited. The agency’s entrepreneur Iswari Poudel said 10 Sherpas were needed to bring back his body.”
Khaled’s corpse is at the south summit, some 28,750 feet from ground level in the high Himalayas, Ibrahim said.
“Almost $50,000 is needed to bring back his body.”
Shaikat said: “We have been able to reach the First Secretary of the Embassy in Kathmandu.”
”The fears over the finances we had about getting back Sajal is no more there after we got in touch with the Prime Minister,” he added.