Snowfall disrates life in Chitral

CHITRAL, 04 Dec 06: The first day of snow fall has brought life to a standstill in Chitral and all services have come to an abrupt halt. Electric power both from the national grid and the local power station have gone off in Chitral town and the only mobile phone service has started blinking. Firewood is scarce and is reportedly       A little boy enjoying fresh snow

 being sold at Rs 200 per maund in the black market. LPG cylinders have all of a sudden disappeared from the market. Flights have been cancelled continuously for the past many days and Lowari pass has closed down for traffic. Passengers particularly those proceedingfor Haj to Saudi Arabia with seats booked on onward recent flights are in a fix.

Chitralis face this kind of situation every winters, no wonder they are eagerly looking towards an early completion of the Lowari tunnel which can by itself alleviate many of the problems which they face in times like these.

About eight inches snowfall has been recorded in Chitral town by Monday evening at the time of writing this report. (report by Bashir Hussain Azad)

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