PESHAWAR – A heavy rain, flanked by snow on mountainous regions throughout Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and adjoining tribal region, paralysed the smooth business of life on Monday. In Peshawar and other main cities, towns and districts of the province, the rain with brief intervals was in progress since Friday.
A heavy snow was also reported in the mountainous regions like Chitral, Dir, Swat, Mansehra, Kohistan, Batagram, Buner, Shangla and Abbottabad districts while apart from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the heavy snow was also reported in Tirrah valley of Khyber Agency, Kurram Agency and Shawal region of Waziristan. The officials at Upper Dir said the Lawari Top connecting Chitral with rest of the country was closed for every sort of traffic due to the snow falling.
They added that all Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights between Peshawar and Chitral remained suspended on the third consecutive day and all the roads remained closed for traffic in Dir region. In Upper Swat, the traffic between Kalam and Behrain also remained suspended as the main Kalam Road till Behrain remained covered with snow while the road connecting Shangla with Swat also came under heavy snow.
Similar situation was reported in Kohistan whereas the Silk route was also affected due to the land sliding as traffic on the route at different points remained suspended. Galyat and Tandyani areas in Abbottabad, Kaghan, Shogran and Naran valleys were also badly affected by the heavy rain and snow, disrupting the traffic from Balakot of Mansehra till Shogran, Naran and Kaghan.
A number of tribal areas were also disconnected due to the heavy rains and snow particularly Tirrah Valley became isolated.
