Saturday, July 1 2006 11:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Dhaka: Two Bangladeshis have claimed to be the country's first pair of mountaineers after climbing the 19,125-foot-high Mount Frey in Sikkim, India.

Musa Ibrahim and Sajal Khaled reached the peak at 3:30 p.m. (local time) on May 22 after climbing continuously for eight hours, reported the Daily Star newspaper this week.

"When we reached the peak it was so cold that we could not even express our joy completely. We left after a quick photo session," said one of the mountaineers.



The duo underwent rigorous training under the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in India before starting their expedition.

Members of the Bangla Mountaineering and Trekking Club, Ibrahim and Khaled are now planning to climb Mount Everest by 2010.



"We have planned an expedition of the Ladakh mountain (23,000 ft) in Himachal Pradesh in September and we will continue with our practice to successfully reach the Everest," said Ibrahim.



However, a US-based Bangladeshi, Shafqat, has refuted their claims of being the first Bangladeshi mountaineers to climb such heights.

In a letter to the newspaper, Shafqat has claimed that the feats of Intesar Haider, a Bangladeshi now living in New York, has gone unreported in the country's media.

Haider has scaled the peaks of the massive Mt. Rainier (14,411 ft) in Washington state, Mt. Vinson (16,076 ft) in Antarctica and other peaks in Sikkim and remote eastern Greenland, said the letter.