QUETTA: Heavy snowfall and rain continued to lash parts of northern and central Balochistan on Friday, creating hurdles in restoring vehicular traffic on the main highway linking Quetta with other parts of the country.

Icy winds were blowing in Quetta, Ziarat, Chaman and other towns of northern Balochistan which brought the mercury further down and intensified cold wave disturbing normal life.

Erratic power and gas supplies are creating problem for the people making it difficult to keep their houses warm.

There are reports about the death of three children and injuries to three others in Goth Shafi Mohammad near Uthal town of Lasbela district where the roof of a house collapsed due to Thurs­day night’s heavy rain.

Quetta also received heavy rain during last 24 hours which flooded low lying areas and rainwater entered several houses. The rain continuing for whole night also flooded main roads of the city, which exposed the performance of the Quetta Metropolitan Corporation as sewerage system failed to drain out the rainwater from the roads.

Official sources said that the local administration of Chaman district with Levies Force and PDMA volunteers restored traffic on Quetta-Chaman national highway in the morning but another spell of snowfall in the afternoon again suspended traffic.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2022