PESHAWAR, Dec 8: Most parts of North West Frontier Province received rain coupled with snowfall in some hilly areas of the province. Drizzle started on Sunday night increasing chill in the air in most parts of the province whereas snowfall covered the high altitude areas like Chitral and Abbottbade on Monday.

Chitral received snowfall on Monday as a result Lowari Pass connecting with the rest of the country was closed for all kinds of vehicular traffic.

According to reports dozens of vehicles were stranded in Lowari and some passengers proceeded to the lower altitude to continue their journey.

A large number of people, who were coming to Chitral to celebrate religious festival Eidul Azha, were reportedly stranded in Dir district.

Due to the continuing snowfall in Lowari, the passengers are said to be returning to their respective stations. The residents of Chitral have apprehended the shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the district which had not been stored in sufficient quantity before the closure of Lowari.

High altitude hill-tops in Lower Dir also received first snowfall along with the first spell of winter rains in all parts of the district. The rains and snowfall started late on Sunday night and continued intermittently on Monday.

The weather turned chilly and harsh with the rainfall and markets wore a deserted look despite the upcoming festival of Eidul Azha being observed on Tuesday.

The internally displaced persons from Bajaur tribal region living in makeshift tent villages and activists of the protesting Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i- Muhammadi were the worst victims of the current spell of rains as they had been living in canvas made tents.

According to farmers the rain would benefit wheat crops and golden orange fruit gardens as they had sown wheat seeds two weeks ago.