KARACHI, Pakistan 

A well-preserved body of a man missing for 28 years was discovered on a melting glacier in northwest Pakistan, locals and his family said.

The body was discovered last Friday by a local shepherd in the remote Lady Valley of the Kohistan district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The body was identified as Naseeruddin, who was traveling with his brother, Kathiruddin, on horseback when he fell and went missing in June 1997.

Kathiruddin told reporters that a family feud had forced the two brothers to leave their home.

They had taken a unique route through the mountains to avoid potential threats.

According to him, a snowstorm hit them, but his brother was believed to have fallen into a crack.

"We tried everything we could to find him, but we couldn't," he said, adding that the family and police assumed Naseeruddin was dead after failing to locate him, and a funeral prayer was held in his absence at the scene.

The glacier's conditions preserved the body in remarkable detail, and a national identity card discovered in his pocket identified him.

According to Umar Khan, the shepherd who discovered the body, the clothing and physical characteristics of the body were mostly intact.

Naseeruddin had a wife and two children. He was buried in a local cemetery following a formal funeral on Tuesday.