AS SNOWFALL thawed at a popular Pakistan mountain resort on Sunday (9), rescued tourists were found reckoning with the deaths of 22 fellow travellers in a frozen traffic jam.
"We didn't get any type of alert from society, from the government, from Google, from the news, from the weather," said 18-year-old Duaa Kashif Ali, a tourist from Islamabad.
"Locals helped us," she said, after emerging from a guesthouse where she waited out the worst snowstorm witnessed by Murree in decades.
The mountain-perch town - 70 kilometres (45 miles) northeast of Islamabad - has long been a favourite for tourists, who swarmed to see vistas dusted with fresh snowfall this week.
Roads were jammed with traffic from some 100,000 visitors when a blizzard dumped four feet (1.2 metres) of snow from Friday (7) onwards.
Stuck in their cars overnight, 22 people died from the cold or carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust fumes. Among them were 10 children.
Local tourists walk along a road after a heavy snowfall in Murree, around 70 kilometres (45 miles) northeast of Islamabad on January 8, 2022. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
"People here were literally weeping... when they heard," recalled 47-year-old tourist Kashif Ishaq.
As he spoke, a convoy of hulking heavy machinery cleared the ice-bitten roads behind him, ending two days of snowbound isolation for the satellite village of Ratti Gali.
Ishaq arrived with his daughter Duaa Kashif Ali on Friday night.
Alongside 13 other family members and friends, they ditched three stranded cars and hiked 1.5 kilometres (1 mile) to where a guesthouse owner took them in.
"The locals really helped us," said Ishaq.
"They offered their services, they offered their homes, they offered their restaurants and hotels free of charge."
“Natural' disaster”
In nearby Kuldana, about 5,000 people were taken in at the Army School of Logistics on Friday night.
"It was like a natural disaster," said Major Muhammad Umar. "There was no electricity, no gas, no telephone, nothing working."
Eleven-year-old Arosh Yasir, warming up by a gas fire with her family, said they spent the night in their car on Friday before being rescued the following morning.
"Our food was cold and there was no way back or forward," she said.
"I started crying and praying."
Many Pakistanis complained on social media that hoteliers had pushed up prices to capitalise on stranded customers, prompting them to sleep in cars.
Arosh said on Saturday (8) hotels were "either very expensive or had no space", forcing them into the army camp.
On Sunday (9) afternoon, the rescue effort had largely morphed to a repair and salvage operation, aided by steady sunshine winnowing away snowdrifts.
Workmen clambered mountainside pylons to knock free iced electricity wires, whilst others crowded around open car bonnets trying to coax engines back to life.
Some vehicles still remained abandoned under vast snowbanks, forcing ploughs to slalom the precarious mountain tracks.
Among clear spots in the ice were small scatterings of empty water bottles and snack food packaging, marking where many tourists spent Friday night in their cars.
"It was my worst experience," said 21-year-old Aafia Ali, a visitor from Karachi among the party taking shelter at Ratti Gali.
Several Pakistani newspapers published scathing articles on Sunday, attacking authorities for failing to close off the area despite ample warning of heavy snow.
That sentiment was shared among those preparing to make their way off the mountain.
"The management of this area, they are responsible for this," said Aafia Ali.
(AFP)
Moglai Bap and Mo Chara of Kneecap perform at Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 28, 2025. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
Police may probe anti-Israel comments at Glastonbury
BRITISH police said they were considering whether to launch an investigation after performers at Glastonbury Festival made anti-Israel comments during their shows.
"We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon," Avon and Somerset Police, in western England, said on X late on Saturday (28).
Irish hip-hop group Kneecap and punk duo Bob Vylan made anti-Israeli chants in separate shows on the West Holts stage on Saturday. One of the members of Bob Vylan chanted "Death, death, to the IDF" in a reference to the Israel Defense Forces.
"Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation," the police statement said.
The Israeli Embassy in Britain said it was "deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival".
Prime minister Keir Starmer said earlier this month it was "not appropriate" for Kneecap to appear at Glastonbury.
The band's frontman Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh was charged with a terrorism offence last month for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November. He has denied the charge.
A British government minister said it was appalling that the anti-Israel chants had been made at Glastonbury, and that the festival's organisers and the BBC broadcaster - which is showing the event - had questions to answer.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said he was also appalled by violence committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
"I'd also say to the Israeli Embassy, get your own house in order in terms of the conduct of your own citizens and the settlers in the West Bank," Streeting told Sky News.
"I wish they'd take the violence of their own citizens towards Palestinians more seriously," he said.
(Reuters)