Murree tragedy: Punjab Highway Department shifts blame onto traffic police

Image shows a car stranded in snow in Murree as people gather around it — Twitter

LAHORE: The Punjab Highway Department (PHD) held traffic police and the district administration responsible for the Murree tragedy in which 23 tourists  lost their lives on January 7.

In its probe report, the PHD said that no traffic police personnel was present on the Klidna-Barian road on the night when motorists were stuck in massive traffic jams amid the freezing weather conditions on the road.

PHD’s vehicles were also stuck in the  jams, thus it was not possible to remove snow from the roads that night, said the department.

Blaming the traffic police and the district administrator, the PHD said that they did not stop tourists from entering the hill station despite extreme weather conditions.

Murree is able to accommodate a maximum of 4,000 vehicles, but the traffic police and the district administration allowed a large number of vehicles to enter the tourist destination, said the PHD.

The PHD was working on seven different points that night, the department said, adding that they have photographs and videos as evidence.

Probe committee seeks more time to complete investigation

The five-member probe committee formed by the Punjab government to inquire about the Murree tragedy failed to complete its investigation on Monday, which was set as a deadline, Geo News reported, citing sources.

The investigators missed the deadline to submit their report and have sought five more days to complete their probe, sources said.

Quoting the members of the probe committee, the sources had added: “The officials of the concerned district and Punjab secretariat are not taking the issue seriously."

Shedding light on the reason behind the delay, the sources had said that written statements from the administration had not been received yet.