RAWALPINDI: Zahid Mehmood, who was on his way to Murree on Friday, was to be married in two weeks.

A skilled worker, Zahid’s expertise was aluminum windows, and it was his work that led him to Murree on that fateful day.

Zahid’s uncle, Abdul Ghafoor, told Dawn that he was supposed to meet a client in Murree, but he got stuck in the snowstorm that blanketed the Murree Hills with at least 15 inches of snow.

Mr Ghafoor said Zahid’s last conversations were with one of his friends. He said Zahid told him he was stuck near Kuldana and was starting to feel very cold. After that, no one heard anything from him.

Rescuers told Mr Ghafoor that the van his nephew was travelling in became stuck in the snow. They broke through the vehicle’s windows and managed to pull Zahid’s limp body out, but were unable to revive him and pronounced him dead.

Zahid’s funeral was one of many that were held in the twin cities following the tragedy in Murree on Sunday. Of the 22 deceased, 14 bodies were brought to Rawalpindi on Saturday night and handed over to the victims’ families after legal formalities.

These included 40-year-old Mohammad Shahzad, who had never visited the hill station in his life. The Sadiqabad resident had decided to take his wife and four children – daughters Iqra, 12, Ayesha, 14 and sons Samiullah, 8, and Habibullah ,10 – to Murree on Friday.

Shahzad’s brother-in-law, Jahangir Ahmed broke down while narrating his story. “He had never traveled to Murree before. He went for the first time on Friday, but did not return alive.”

All the deceased from district Rawalpindi, including Shahzad, his wife and two daughters and two sons were laid to rest in local graveyards on Sunday amid moving scenes, with some mourners blaming the government and district administration and others cursing their luck.

The family’s funeral was attended by a large number of people. Jamaat-i-Islami Naib Emir Raza Ahmed, who was also present, termed the Murree tragedy a failure of the government and the district administration, demanding that a judicial commission be established to investigate it.

However, an emotionally overwhelmed Jahangir could only say it was “the will of God”.

Gujar Khan

The bodies of Islamabad Police Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Naveed Iqbal and other members of his family, who died trapped in their vehicle near Kuldana, were laid to rest in their native village of Dodiyal in Talagang tehsil of Chakwal on Sunday.

The family had left for Murree on Friday but got stuck in a blizzard. An audio recording of the ASI’s final messages to his colleagues circulated on social media in which he said he had been stuck since noon but by 9pm no help or recovery vehicles had arrived to rescue them.

The bodies of ASI Naveed, his daughters Shafaq, 18, Dua, 13, Iqra 10, son Ahmad, 5, niece Hooria, 2, nephew Ayan, 9, and sister Quratul Ain were brought to their native village and funeral prayers were offered on Sunday morning.

The funeral was attended by police officers along with hundreds of locals while Islamabad Inspector General Mohammad Ahsan Younas also visited the surviving son and widow of the ASI and expressed his condolences.

— Hamid Asghar also contributed to this story

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2022