Daily Times

MURREE: Form the last two days, continuous snowfall has been taking place in Murree, and with that, hundreds of thousands of tourists are heading towards the town.

Amid more heavy snowfall forecasts in Malka-e-Kohsar, the government has deployed civil-armed forces to evacuate tourists.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed in a video message on Twitter that the government has decided to seek “undeclared” help from civil-armed forces to evacuate the tourists from the area.

He admitted that despite their 12-hour efforts, they could not restore traffic in the city as a large number of vehicles have entered the hill station.

The interior minister said that he was personally overseeing the matter, adding that Punjab and the federal governments were also monitoring the situation.

He said that thousands of people were left stuck on the streets amid the cold weather and urged the local people to help the tourists.

Moreover, An estimated 125,000 vehicles have entered the city so far, due to which severe traffic jam was witnessed on the roads. It is pertinent to mention here that the routes to Malka-e-Kohsar were closed due to heavy snowfall.

Rawalpindi deputy commissioner has confirmed that that the roads leading to the tourist site has been blocked at Bhara Kahu tool plaza to deal with the situation.

Taking to Twitter, Rawalpindi deputy commissioner said, “Around 23000 vehicles have been evacuated safely from Murree. Around 1000 are still stranded.

Earlier, Sheikh Rasheed had appealed to the tourists, especially families, to refrain from travelling to Murree and Galyat.