22 people die trapped in vehicles after heavy snowfall in Pakistan's Murree
Lahore, Jan 8: Pakistan's popular hill station Murree was declared a calamity-hit area on Saturday after at least 21 people, including nine children, froze to death in their stranded vehicles due to unprecedented snowfall and rush of tourists to the picturesque town in Punjab province.
All the routes in Murree in Rawalpindi district were blocked after thousands of vehicles entered the city, leaving the tourists helpless on the roads.
Around 1,000 cars were stuck on the hill station while the Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar issued instructions for expediting rescue work and providing aid to the stranded tourists, the Dawn newspaper reported.
The Punjab government has imposed a state of emergency in hospitals, police stations and administration offices.
According to a list issued by Rescue 1122, at least 22 people died, including 10 children, it said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was shocked and upset at the tragic deaths of tourists on the road to Murree.
"Unprecedented snowfall & rush of ppl proceeding without checking weather conditions caught district admin unprepared. Have ordered inquiry & putting in place strong regulation to ensure prevention of such tragedies," Khan said in a tweet.
The military has been mobilised to clear roads and rescue people still trapped, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said in a video message. He said Murree had "seen a huge number of tourists after 15-20 years", and due to that, a crisis took place.
Rashid said the government was forced to close the road from Islamabad to Murree.
The commissioners of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, deputy commissioners, police, are carrying out rescue operations, he said.
"As many as 1,000 vehicles have been stuck since night [...] some have been evacuated; 16-19 deaths took place in cars. The locals provided food and blankets to the stranded people," Rashid said.
He said the authorities would evacuate 1,000 vehicles by Saturday evening, while the roads would remain closed to Murree till Sunday at 9 PM.
"We have also decided to ban tourists who are planning to visit Murree. This is not the time to come to Murree," the minister was quoted as saying by the Geo News.
The Punjab government has declared Murree as a calamity-hit area after heavy snowfall wreaked havoc in the city. Taking notice of the chaos and emergency situation, Punjab Chief Minister Buzdar has directed to open the government's offices and rest houses for the stranded tourists.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department had predicted heavy snowfall in Murree and Galiyat from January 6 to 9.
Thousands of tourists, including women and children, have been trapped on the roads in the area since last night. Officials of the traffic police, however, were making their efforts to restore the flow of traffic on the roads.
Taking to Twitter, Rawalpindi deputy commissioner said, Around 23,000 vehicles have been evacuated safely from Murree. Around 1,000 are still stranded."
Opposition political leaders criticised the government for its handling of the influx of tourists and inadequate preparation.
Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said he was heartbroken over the tragedy in Murree and questioned who was responsible for the deaths.
"Where was the government all the while? What arrangements did it make to deal with such an influx? Incompetence is fast turning into criminality. Prior arrangements & round-the-clock supervision were the normal SOPs in the past," he tweeted.
Terming the deaths heartbreaking, PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman said governments "needed to be more vigilant about the flood of tourists on the Galiyat routes".
"Instead of seeking more tourists, the government should have given a warning for jammed roads. These were tragic & avoidable losses that no one intended, but no one acted in time either. Lessons need to be learnt," she added.
"The job of governments is not only to count tourists but also to make advance arrangements and security measures for them [...] These deaths are not due to snowfall but due to government negligence," tweeted PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz.
A large number of people were stranded and flights faced delays as the rain continued to lash the federal capital and Rawalpindi for the fourth consecutive day on Friday.
Due to continuous snowfall and traffic congestion in Murree, the district administration imposed a ban on the entry of more vehicles.
Snowfall, which began on Tuesday night, continued with regular intervals, attracting thousands of tourists. However, due to the rush of visitors, many families ended up getting stranded on roads. It has been reported that over 100,000 vehicles entered the hill station.
In a statement, Chief Traffic Officer Taimoor Khan said the entry of vehicles into Murree had been banned from Friday night onwards and cars were being diverted from toll plazas and other entrances, the Dawn reported.
He said since snowfall started on Monday morning, more than 155,000 vehicles had entered Murree and 135,000 had so far left.
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IndiGo CEO makes sudden departure after December turbulence, international expansion
New Delhi (PTI): On a warm afternoon on January 28, a confident Petrus Johannes Theodorus Elbers, better known as Pieter Elbers, explained the journey of IndiGo with his innate enthusiasm.
This was also his first in-person media interaction after flight disruptions in December last year.
Three days of disruptions cannot define the 20 years of IndiGo, a slightly agitated Elbers told media persons in response to repeated queries related to the flight cancellations, including about the duration of the cancellations, in December.
Little over 40 days after that interaction, Elbers, a Dutch national who enjoyed and shared pictures of his participation in local Indian festivals and wearing local attire, abruptly resigned from the airline as the Chief Executive Officer on Tuesday.
Before joining IndiGo on September 6, 2022, Elbers was the President & Chief Executive Officer of KLM for eight years. He was with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for 30 years in various roles.
Under his stewardship, IndiGo significantly expanded its international operations, started operations with leased wide-body Boeing 787-9 aircraft, placed orders for 60 wide-body A350-900 planes and remained profitable.
Also, IndiGo, which currently has a domestic market share of 63.6 per cent, hosted the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in the national capital in June last year. The meeting happened in India for the first time after 42 years.
While Elbers' stint as CEO was progressing well, the unprecedented operational disruptions at IndiGo, always proud of its On Time Performance (OTP), in December last year clouded the horizon.
More than 2,500 flight cancellations in just three days from December 3-5 left passengers in the lurch, rattled aviation authorities and pushed Elbers to repeatedly apologise for disruptions, which were mainly caused by a lack of planning in implementing the revised flight duty norms for pilots.
"We have let down our customers for three days," and the airline will use it to come back better, Elbers said on January 28 at the media interaction on the sidelines of the aviation summit Wings India 2026 in Hyderabad.
In his short resignation letter on Tuesday, Elbers cited personal reasons for his departure and mentioned that if the company so desires, obviously, I will be available for any handover or transition otherwise.
However, he has been relieved with immediate effect, and IndiGo Co-Founder and Managing Director Rahul Bhatia will manage the company's affairs on an interim basis.
Back in May 2025, when asked about the way forward for IndiGo, Elbers told PTI Videos, "picture abhi baaki hai".
With ambitious growth plans on the anvil, the airline will soon have a second CEO in less than four years to pilot the journey.
