MURREE: Eight people visiting the northern areas have died of
cold after heavy snowfall lashed the popular tourist spots.
According to police, among the victims, four were friends and were visiting
Murree from Mardan. They died of cold while spending the night in their car
due to huge traffic jam.
Local administration has launched operation to rescue the stranded tourists;
however, teams are facing difficulties due to disruption in mobile service
and electricity supply.
On the other hand, administration of Rawalpindi and Islamabad has closed the
roads going to Murree and Galiyat due to large number of vehicles entering
the hill station owing to heaving snowfall.
Thousands of tourists entered the hill station on Friday to witness the
snowfall causing heavy traffic jams on Murree-Islamabad Motorway. The
authorities decided to close all kind of traffic going towards the hill
station to avoid a further brutal traffic jam.
Meanwhile the Motorway police and local administration is busy in helping
the tourists who had been stuck in their cars in the heavy traffic jam. The
process of sending the cars back from Murree has also been started.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry has also
urged people to delay their plans of visiting northern areas by some days
due to heavy traffic jams.
Fawad Chaudhry, in a tweet, said that hundreds of thousands of vehicles are
heading towards these areas causing problems for local administrations as
they are unable to facilitate such a large number of tourists.
The minister asked people who have not left their houses to postpone their
plans. -Agencies
