PESHAWAR: One person was killed in Mansehra and a house collapsed in Swat, leaving seven cattle heads dead, when widespread intermittent rain coupled with thunderstorm and snowfall lashed several parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday.

The upper parts of Hazara received heavy rain and snowfall, dipping the mercury to cause severe cold. The lighting killed a man identified as Riaz in Sawal Mera area in Mansehra.

The rain, which started in Mansehra, Balakot, Torghar and other parts of the division in small hours of Sunday, continued intermittently the entire day.

Kaghan valley, Siren valley and Konsh valley also received snowfall, which blocked links roads to traffic.

The reopening of Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road, which was blocked in December last following heavy snowfall in Kaghan valley, was hampered owing to heavy snowfall.

In Peshawar, light rain in different areas turned the weather pleasant. The rain gave respite to Peshawarites from the dust rising owing to ongoing work on Bus Rapid Transit project.

In Swat, light rain started early in the morning and continued till late evening.

However, seven cattle heads were killed after a house collapsed as lightning struck it at Bahdar Banda, a remote area in Matta tehsil.

The house of Talemand caught fire after lightning struck it. All the nine rooms in the house were destroyed and seven animals including buffaloes and cows were killed.

“Despite informing tehsil administration and elected representatives, nobody bothered to reach the spot and help the affected family,” said Nahid Ali Shaheen, a resident of Matta.

In Chitral, the lower areas including Jinjirate, Jinjirate Koh, Osiak Droah and Kalkatak received torrential rain while Peshawar road remained closed for more than six hours.

An official of district administration told Dawn that flashflood caused by the rain swept away six houses in Jinjirate village while it inundated the crops of wheat in hundreds of acres apart from fruit orchards.

No casualty of human life was reported from the affected areas in Chitral as the people had moved to the safer places due to early warning system of district administration.

The debris brought by flashflood blocked the Peshawar road near Serdur. The road remained closed for six hours.

In Kohat division, heavy rain accompanied by hail and thunderstorm lashed several areas.

The downpour started in the afternoon in Kohat, Darra Adamkhel, Hangu and Orakzai Agency. The rain settled the dust caused by construction of several buildings, roads and streets under the Rs1.20 billion uplift plan.

It beat the hot spell prevailing in the region for some days and tuned the weather pleasant.

The drying up Tanda Dam fetching on streams of upper Orakzai Agency through Kohat Toi also stored water essential for the fields depending on it. It had gone almost empty a month back.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2018