22 stranded snow-tourists die at Pakistan hill station of Murree

At least 22 people have died in freezing temperatures after being stuck in their vehicles in the Pakistani hill station of Murree with travelers stranded overnight on snowed-in roads in an unfortunate tragedy that has trapped thousands.

Tens of thousands of people arrived in Murree in the past two days to see the snow, despite appeals by authorities to postpone their plans because of bad weather and roadblocks. The Pakistan Meteorological Department had predicted heavy snowfall in Murree and the Galiyat mountainous regions from January 6 to 9 and relevant departments had issued warning.

Prime minister Imran Khan expressed grief and said he had ordered an inquiry.

“Shocked & upset at tragic deaths of tourists on road to Murree.  Unprecedented snowfall & rush of people proceeding without checking weather conditions caught district administration unprepared. Have ordered inquiry & putting in place strong regulation to ensure prevention of such tragedies.” He came on twitter to inform the nation.

The Pakistani netizens and opposition leaders however criticized PM Imran Khan over blaming people rather taking prior actions to avoid such tragedy and accepting the responsibility of mismanaging the situation.

The interior minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed said that the Rawalpindi and Islamabad administrations and police were working to rescue the stranded, and five platoons of the Pakistan army as well as the paramilitary Rangers and Frontier Corps had also been called in to assist.

The army announced on Saturday afternoon it has established four camps in the area and a "control division "and opened rescue centers. 

The human tragedy in Murree has resulted in the loss of dozens of lives, the deaths of tourists have saddened people across the country.

Thousands of tourists, including women and children, are still stranded until late Saturday night. The government has declared Murree a disaster area and launched an emergency rescue operation.

All government agencies, including the army and Rangers, are currently engaged in relief operations.

But this unfortunate incident did not happen overnight. Just last week, the Meteorological Department had forecast a blizzard in Murree for several days. Due to school holidays, a large number of tourists from all over the country flocked to Murree and with each passing day, the number of tourists in Murree increased.

Meanwhile, the administration and the government did not take any steps to stop the people from dying. On Wednesday, January 5, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry wrote on Twitter that the entry of 100,000 vehicles in Murree was good news. Nearly one lakh vehicles have entered in Murree. Rents of hotels and residences have gone up many times. This increase in tourism shows the prosperity of the common man and increase in income, the minister added trying to ascertain that increase is tourism is the result of prosperity of common people in current rule.

However, according to the Murree administration, only 4,000 vehicles can be parked in Murree. That was bound to be a problem when such a large number of vehicles landed in Murree during the snowy season. Then the local population also passes through Murree via Galyat and Muzaffarabad due to which the increase in road traffic is certain.

Things started to get worse on Friday when the heavy snowfall that started at 12 noon, did not stop and continued till 5 am on Saturday. There was a severe snowstorm between Friday and Saturday night.

According to local residents, the snowfall was as heavy as a strong wind on Friday night and the locals had not seen such heavy snowfall for a long time.

On Friday evening, the administration realized the seriousness of the matter and the roads leading to Murree were closed but it was delayed by that time as according to the administration, 130,000 vehicles had entered Murree by Friday evening.

In such severe weather conditions, trees fell in many places over roads, the movement of vehicles was stopped, roads were blocked with snow and the power also went out at 8 pm. Jhika Gali in Murree is the crossroads through which vehicles heading towards Kashmir also pass and there is also a road leading to Bhurban and Nathia Gali. The weather is even colder there.

There was a traffic jam in Jhika Gali and trees fell on the way, after which there was a traffic jam. Heavy snowfall was also reported on the narrow road from Jhika Gali to Kaldana and vehicles were also affected.

On the other hand, due to severe traffic jams, snow removal machines could not clear the road, due to which people were forced to spend the night in their vehicles in severe weather. During this time many people turned on the heaters in the vehicles and closed the windows to avoid the blizzard but this caused lack of oxygen and caused many deaths.

According to reports, the administration was not mobilized till Friday evening which was a big mistake but rescue operations have been started since Saturday morning. Along with the local administration and police, army personnel are also taking part in the rescue operation and people are also being shifted to a military cantonment near Kashmiri Bazaar.

The locals are also facing severe difficulties and due to road closures, not only the supply of food and medicine is cut off but also the patients cannot be taken to the hospitals.

Islamabad police said on Saturday that ASI Naveed Iqbal along with his children were killed due to heavy snowfall on Kaldana Road in Murree last night.

On the other hand, the spokesperson of Rescue 1122 in Murree said that most of the tourists were killed on Kaldana Road. A rescue spokesman said 21 bodies had been recovered from vehicles on Kaldana Road and adjoin areas.