Ten killed, including children, after van plunges into ravine and burns on Islamabad-Murree road

By Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: They had set out from Multan in the middle of the night, 23 members of the same family, bound for the cool air and pine-forested hills of Murree. By Wednesday morning, 10 of them were dead — among them children — killed not only by the crash that sent their van tumbling into a roadside ravine but by the fire that followed, and by a sliding door that would not open.

The accident occurred near Khajut on the Islamabad-Murree Expressway, a stretch of mountain road that has drawn surging traffic in recent weeks after reconstruction work on the parallel Murree Road diverted vehicles onto the expressway. According to National Highways and Motorway Police spokesperson Saqib Waheed, the Hiace van was negotiating a bend when it lost control, plunged into a drainage channel beside the road and immediately burst into flames.

What followed was a scene of particular horror. The van came to rest on its side — the side where the sliding door was located. With the door pinned against the ground, passengers had no way out. Thirteen survived, though two of them remained in critical condition Wednesday evening.

“The victims are from the same family and were travelling from Multan to Murree,” the NHMP said in a statement.

Murree Deputy Commissioner Agha Zaheer Abbas Shirazi, who reached the accident site, said the vehicle was carrying 23 people when it struck a side wall at high speed. The collision ignited a fire in the engine compartment. Rescue 1122 teams, motorway police personnel and officials from the Forest Department responded to the scene, he said, as rescue and recovery efforts continued alongside personnel from the local administration.

The bodies of those killed and the survivors were transported to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad. A PIMS spokesperson said 10 injured passengers had been admitted, two of them in critical condition.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz expressed grief over the deaths and ordered an inquiry. In a statement, she directed rescue and administrative agencies to provide all possible assistance to the affected families and instructed officials to determine the causes of the accident and present a comprehensive report on the circumstances that led to the tragedy.

National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq also extended condolences to the bereaved families. “I share the grief of the families of the deceased in the accident,” Sadiq said, adding that he prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Authorities launched an investigation Wednesday into the cause of the fire and the precise sequence of events that produced one of the deadliest single road accidents in the region in recent memory. The expressway, which winds through steep hillside terrain between Islamabad and Murree, has been under particular strain in recent weeks as it absorbs traffic displaced from the Murree Road.