SWABI: A thunderstorm accompanied by heavy rain lashed Swabi on Tuesday, badly damaging the standing wheat crop cultivated over hundreds of acres of land in both the irrigated and arid areas of the district, said the farmers.

They said that the thunderstorm started on Monday night and continued for over three hours, adding the downpour again started lashing the district at 1pm on Tuesday and continued for nearly four hours. Heavy rain also inundated low-lying areas.

The growers said that the wheat crop was at a very critical stage, but the thunderstorm completely flattened it. “We will suffer a 50 per cent loss in yield,” Safdar Ali, a farmer, said.

The farmers said that they were assessing the damage to their crop caused by the thunderstorm.

Thunderstorm and rain also damaged standing vegetable crops on a large area.

Meanwhile, the storm also disrupted power supply in various areas of the districts for several hours.

Meanwhile, district police officer Sajjad Khan claimed at a news conference on Tuesday to have arrested six members of a car-lifters gang.

He identified the arrested car-lifters as Naveed Khan, Murad Khan, Miza Gul, Yasir Khan, Afsar Khan and Mirza Ali, saying that three cars had also been recovered from the auto thieves who were picked from Bisak area of Gadoon belt.

Published in Dawn February 25th , 2015

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