Mountaineer and filmmaker Sajal Khaled died on Sunday, few hours after he successfully stepped on the summit of Mount Everest.
He was a member of the Bangladesh Mountaineering and Trekking Club (BMTC). On behalf of the club, he participated in expeditions of the Annapurna and the Makalu ranges of the Himalayas, Frey Mountain in Sikkim and Singu Chulli peak in India, and Mera Mountain in Nepal.
Musa Ibrahim, the first Bangladeshi ever to step foot on the peak of the Everest, told the Dhaka Tribune that Sajal first attempted to win Everest back in April-May 2011 through Tibet’s North Face. But he had to retreat after reaching camp one, which is around 20,000 feet above sea-level, following lungs infection.
Quoting one Ishwari Pawdel, owner of Himalayan Guides Private Limited in Nepal, Musa said Sajal made the summit at around 10am BST through Nepal’s South Face point.
Seven Summit Treks (Pvt) Ltd took permit from the Nepalese government for his climbing and Speed Everest Sherpa Pemba Darji organised the whole expedition.
Everest peak is 29,035 feet high above sea level.
Ishwari informed Musa that Kapur Sreshtha, a base-camp representative of the organiser, confirmed him about Sajal’s death.
“While descending, Sajal seemed very weak. At the South Summit, at 28,750 feet above the sea-level, Sajal along with his fellow South Korean climber Sung Ho-Seo could not move anymore and they died in the tent,” Musa said quoting Ishwari.
A Munshiganj brat, Sajal, 35, studied information and multimedia technology in Germany. But he did not only bind himself in that field. His friends described him as a “man of many talents.”
After returning home in 2004, he started working under noted documentary filmmaker and journalist Kawser Mahmud as an assistant director in the documentary project “Ekattorer Shobdoshena.”
“He was very keen to learn the tricks of filmmaking, but I always felt mountains were his life. During the shooting hours, whenever we got some time off, he used tell us his dreams about mountaineering,” Kawser told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said Sajal first took training on professional mountaineering back in 2000. Later he took part in several mountaineering training in Nepal and Darjeeling of India with the mountaineering corps of the Indian Army. He was also an alumni of Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, the oldest mountaineering training school of the sub-continent.
His first transliteration “Porboter Neshai Odommo Pran” (The Will to Climb: Obsession and Commitment and the Quest to Climb Annapurna – the World's Deadliest Peak) by noted US mountaineer Edmund Viesturs, was published in this year’s Ekushey Book Fair.
Sajal’s first full feature film “Kajoler Dinratri” – based on a novel by noted litterateur Muhammad Zafar Iqbal – is awaiting release soon. Impress Telefilm has produced the movie.
Sajal left behind his wife Shoili, a radio jockey of FM radio station ABC Radio, and a 1.5-year-old son.
Dhaka Tribune is yet to establish any contact with his family members.
