Ikramul Hasan Shakil, the first Bangladeshi mountaineer who climbed the Great Himalayan Trail, met with Nagad Founder and Managing Director Tanvir A Mishu after successfully completing his expedition in Nepal.

The mountaineer could not come back home despite his successful trekking of 1,700 kilometres of the Great Himalayan Trail in 107 days, owing to his inability to repay the money that he took from different people in Nepal. Then,Nagad MD  Tanvir came to know about his financial crisis through a media news and extended his helping hand immediately to ensure Shakil’s return to home, according to a press release.

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Shakil expressed his gratitude to the Nagad MD for the kind gesture, it said.

Shakil, hailing from Gazipur, is the 33rd person in the world to pull off the expedition. The Nagad founder congratulated Shakil on this achievement for Bangladesh, the release also said.

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“After completing the expedition to the Great Himalayan Trail, I became worried as I did not know how to repay the borrowed money. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Nagad and Tanvir Bhai who not only helped me return home but they also salvaged Bangladesh’s image,” said the mountaineer.

Shakil, from Gazipur’s Kaliakair, has been involved in various social activities since childhood. After having passed from Uttara Engineering College, he joined the “Bangla Mountaineering and Trekking Club” out of his passion for adventure. With basic training in mountaineering, he travelled for the Kyajo Ri mountain top, added the release.

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With further training from India’s Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, he went out again in 2019 to trek the inaccessible passes of mountains, it said.

In his latest expedition, July 98, Shakil reached the Kanchenjunga base camp and completed his expedition to the Great Himalayan Trail.

The mountaineer walked more than 96 days after having commenced his expedition from Hilsa town, at the north-west of Nepal-Tibet border, on August 1, 2022. He had to cross 29 difficult mountain passes to reach the Great Himalayan Trail amid hostile weather. Of them, some 14 passes were inaccessible and dangerous with a height of more than 5,000 meters, the report concluded.