MANSEHRA: Kaghan valley has experienced its coldest spell in decades, with temperatures dropping as low as minus 11 degrees Celsius over the past week.
“Kaghan valley is in the grip of an extreme cold wave. Hotels and businesses are completely shut, and the indigenous community has migrated to the lower parts of the district,” Faiz Ahmad Khan, a resident of the valley, told reporters on Tuesday.
He said the business community and residents usually remain in the valley as long as the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad (MNJ) Road stays open to traffic. “But this time, the severe cold compelled them to leave earlier than usual,” he added.
Faiz Khan said that during the last week of November and early December, temperatures plunged to minus eleven degrees Celsius. “This, I believe, is the coldest spell in nearly a decade. Though the MNJ Road is open up to Naran, business activity has already shut down,” he added.
Residents of Battakundi, Barawai, and villages around Naran, the commercial hub of Kaghan Valley, have shifted to their winter destinations in the lower parts of Mansehra due to the harsh weather.
“In the past, local settlers stayed in their villages as long as the MNJ Road remained clear, but this year’s severe winter forced us to move earlier,” Saeed Ahmad said.He said that waterfalls had even dried to ice, and travelling beyond Battakundi was almost impossible owing to the slippery road conditions.
The upper parts of Hazara, including Mansehra, Torghar and Kohistan districts, have also been under the severe grip of cold for the past one week.The district administration has imposed a ban on travel between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan following the first snowfall in November this year.Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have also wrapped up their posts in the upper parts of Kaghan Valley after the snowfall.
