PESHAWAR: One person was killed and three others sustained injuries due to an incident of landsliding in Kohistan district as rains and snowfall paralysed life in mountainous areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday.
A Dassu-bound car was hit by a landslide in Barseen area on the Karakoram Highway. According to the police, members of Tableeghi Jamaat were on way to Dassu for a preaching mission from Barseen when the incident occurred.
Locals rushed to the scene and shifted the injured, including Mohammad Yazeed, Mohammad Khushal, Mohammad Mumtaz and Gul Ruhan, to the Civil Hospital in Dassu where doctors pronounced one of them dead.
The upper parts of Hazara division are in grip of severe cold because of continuous rains and snowfall on the second consecutive day on Sunday.
The rains in the plains and snowfall in the high mountains that started Friday night continued the entire day intermittently, bringing mercury to below freezing point.
Mansehra, Torghar and Upper Kohistan, Lower Kohistan and Kolai-Palas districts also remained in the grip of severe cold.
The roads, which were blocked in upper parts of Hazara because of the landslides triggered by rains, couldn’t be reopened to traffic as yet. This caused hardships to locals and restricted their movement.
The heavy snowfall paralysed routine life in the entire Chitral district, blocking roads in most parts of the valley.
Police officials said Chitral’s link with other parts of the country was blocked and there were reports of a large number of passengers stranded on both sides of the snow-clad Lowari Tunnel.
A heavy avalanche also blocked Garam Chashma road at Mogh village. The Chitral Police said its personnel had been put on alert to help passengers wherever roads were blocked. It also released pictures of policemen pushing vehicles stuck up in snow. Gobor received two feet snow, Bigusht and Madaklasht 18 inches, Garam Chashma eight inches, Shagram six inches, Khot nine inches, and Booni seven inches. All these places are located in the mountainous Chitral district. The mountainous areas in Swat, Upper Dir and Shangla also received heavy snowfall.
Meanwhile, the weather pundits have forecast widespread rain with (snowfall over hills) in Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar and Mardan divisions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa today (Monday)
Rain is also expected in Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Lahore divisions, Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and isolated places in Sargodha, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Multan, Sahiwal, Mirpurkhas and Thatta divisions.
Moderate to heavy intensity snowfall over hills is also expected in Swat, Chitral, Kalam, Malam Jabba and Upper Dir in Malakand division, Hazara division, Murree and Galliyat, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan from Sunday night to Monday.
Rain along with snowfall over the hills occurred in scattered places of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Islamabad, Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sukkur divisions till Sunday evening.
Pasni in Balochistan received 28 millimetres rain followed by Khuzdar with 19 millimetres, Ormara 10, Quetta (Sumungli 09, City 06), Kalat 07, Lasbela, Zhob 03, Barkhan, Sibbi 01, Dir in KP 26, Pattan 21, Kalam 19, Mirkhani 18, Malam Jabba 17, Chitral 16, Drosh 13, Balakot 07, Lower Dir 06, Saidu Sharif, Parachinar 05, and Kakul 02.
In Punjab, Gujrat received 06mm rain, Sargodha (A/P 05, city 04), Noorpurthal, Jhang 04, Hafizabad, Murree, Mandi Bahauddin 03, Sialkot (A/P 02, City 01), Mianwali, Layyah, Mangla, Jhelum 02, Gujranwala, Toba Tek Singh 01 millimeter, Skardu 05, Chilas and Bagrote 04, Hunza 02 rain, Rawalakot 05, Garhi Dupatta 03, Muzaffarabad 01 and Jacobabad 06 millimetres rain.
Kalam received 13-inch snowfall, Malam Jabba 09, Chitral, Bagrote, Murree and Skardu got 02, while Gilgit and Drosh received 01-inch snowfall.
The minimum temperature recorded on Sunday at Gupis, Bagrote was -07°C, Skardu -06°C, Astore and Hunza -05, Kalam and Parachinar -04°C, Malam Jabba -03°C, Drosh -02°C, and Rawlakot -01°C.