Record snowfall in Chitral and others parts of NWFP

The News - PESHAWAR: Dozens of villages in Kohistan and other areas of Dir Upper district remained cut off from the rest of the country because of heavy snowfall, causing food shortage and other problems.

The main bazaar in Dir town opened after three days but shopkeepers said vehicles were still unable to move due to piles of snow and people stayed at homes. Thousands of people in Kohistan, Barawal, Qulandi, Dobando, Hatan Darra and other areas have been snowed in for the last several days, leaving them vulnerable to the severity of the weather.

The snowfall in Dir Upper broke records. It was the severest in 20 years in Dir town and in 40 years in the mountainous areas. The snow has rendered the main Dir-Peshawar and other link roads treacherous and some road accidents were also reported. “I met an accident during the blizzard in Chukiatan, but thank God I remained unhurt. The vehicle skidded onto the mountainside and turned over,” Wahidullah told The News by phone.

Talking to The News from Sheringal, a town on the way to upper parts of Dir-Kohistan, Zahir Shah said the heavy snowfall had paralysed life in Sheringal and people had been facing problems. “Today, vehicles could come to Sheringal but still they could not manage to come to the main bazaar due to heavy snow,” he said. 

The transporters, he added, were taking advantage of the snowy and stormy conditions and charging passengers Rs200 fare between Dir and Sheringal against the normal Rs70. Roads to Patrak, Gwaldai, Dhog Darra, Kalkot, Thal and dozens of other villages are still blocked and there is no sign that the snow would be cleared in the coming days. “People are trying to shovel snow away but they are unable to remove huge piles of snowfall manually. The administration has yet not sent bulldozers to clear roads leaving thousands of people stranded in Kohistan,” Zahir Shah said.

Muhammad Ali, the Jamaat-e-Islami leader in Dir-Kohistan, phoned reporters and asked for help from the government. He said their area had been cut off for the last 12 days as roads had been blocked since the second spell of snowfall. 

“After the first heavy snowfall in the second week of February, we cleared the road from Kalkot to Patrak with the help of volunteers after several days but the next day the fresh snowfall lashed the area and blocked the road,” he narrated. 

Mohammad Ali said now some 500 people from various villages had volunteered to clear the road and said they had removed snow with shovels from 10-kilometre area. He said the area had run out of food supplies while small local bazaars had also been closed due to blizzard. “People are slaughtering cattle to eat to survive,” Mohammad Ali claimed. 

He said they had been unable to shift the patients to Dir town due to closure of the road. “A woman died during delivery in Kalkot because she could not be shifted to hospital,” he said and added the local people took a body of a man on their shoulders from Patrak to far-off Kalkot due to absence of public transport and closure of the road. 

Abidullah, a shopkeeper in Dir town said the bazaar opened after three days but vehicles could not move due to huge amount of snow. “There is snow in front of every shop, forcing customers to stay away,” he said.

Dir-Chitral road has also been blocked since the snowfall on February 12. The road was already blocked at Lowari Top for two months but vehicles were allowed to use the newly excavated tunnel. Now the approach road from Dir to the tunnel and Ziarat to Darosh is, however, covered with several feet of snow.