RAWALPINDI: As many as 18,370 vehicles of tourists entered Murree, while 15,638 vehicles left the hill station during the three days of Eidul Fitr, while 20 road accidents were reported to Rescue 1122 during Eid days. Furthermore, traffic congestion was observed in several spots of the capital city.

The injured, who were in critical condition were transported to Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), while the other injured victims of accidents were treated by rescue personnel on the spot.

As part of their readiness to handle any incident during Eid holidays, rescue officials placed 13 ambulances, eight firefighting engines with crew members, two rescue vehicles, 20 rescue motorcycles with emergency staff on high alert.

On the other hand, traffic police deployed more than 280 personnel to provide the best traffic facilities to tourists visiting Murree. Chief Traffic Officer Rawalpindi Taimoor Khan was present in Murree and supervised all arrangements.

20 road accidents reported to Rescue 1122 during Eid

According to a traffic police spokesperson, the flow of traffic remained uninterrupted on all highways of Murree. He further said that the police guided and helped tourists in various ways while also distributed about 9,000 awareness and safety pamphlets among tourists, from which they received full guidance.

On the other hand, Rescue 1122 received 44 emergency calls and provided first aid to people. As many as 31 people were shifted to Murree hospital while 13 others were given first aid on the spot.

Of the 44 emergency calls received on the first day of Eidul Fitr, nine were related to road accidents while 35 others were emergency calls. Five tourists were injured after their vehicle plunged into a ravine due to over speeding. Ghulam Mustafa, 32, Naveed Khan, 33 and Dr Ahmad Ghous, 36 were among the injured, officials said.

On the second day of Eid, the emergency command and control room received 64 calls and provided first aid to 67 victims. Of the 67 victims, 44 were shifted to different hospitals in Murree while 22 were allowed to go after the first aid.

The spokesman said that out of 64 emergency calls, 11 were related to road traffic accidents while 53 other calls were related to other issues. Six critically injured victims were shifted to Rawalpindi hospitals by emergency services.

Traffic congestion in capital

Traffic jams were observed at most public places of the city during Eid holidays.

On the first day of Eid, there was less traffic on roads but it increased by noon. Traffic jams were observed on the roads leading to Rawal Lake, Pir Sohawa and Murree.

On the second day of Eid, the road leading to Daman-i-Koh was so congested that traffic police had to close the road from the starting point near the capital zoo.

Meraj Khalid, a resident of the capital, while talking to Dawn, said that while there had been high temperatures on the occasions of Eid, during the past few years, this year, the weather was perfect for outings.

“It was cloudy and there was a cold breeze due to which everyone in my family was stressing to go out. However, unfortunately we had to face traffic jams in most places. The worst situation was on Murree Road, from Faizabad to Rawal Dam, due to a police check post which created a bottleneck and resultantly there was a long queue of vehicles,” he said.

“On the other hand police officials remained on the check post,” he said.

Another resident Aftab Ahmed said that on second day of Eid he had planned to go to Pir Sohawa, along with his family, but he was disappointed to see that the road was closed by traffic police.

“We reached there in the evening and were informed by police that the road had been closed because of the traffic jam on the road. We were informed that once a considerable number of vehicles returned from Daman-i-Koh, more vehicles will be allowed to enter the road,” he said.

Similarly, a rush was observed at restaurants as a large number of people had planned to eat, especially dinner, out of their houses.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2023