MANSEHRA: Kaghan Valley is experiencing a severe cold wave with temperatures dropping as low as minus 11 degree 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 local resident, told reporters on Tuesday.

He said the business community and residents usually remained in the valley as long as the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad (MNJ) Road remained open to traffic. “But this time, the severe cold has compelled them to leave earlier than usual,” he added.

Mr Khan said that during the last week of November and early December, temperatures plunged to minus 11 degree 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 said.

Residents of Battakundi, Barawai, and villages around Naran, the commercial hub of Kaghan Valley, have migrated 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 cold forced us to move earlier,” Saeed Ahmad, another resident, said.

He said that even waterfalls had frozen, 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 grip of cold for the past one week. The district administration imposed a ban on travel between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan following the first snowfall in November.

Meanwhile, the police have also wrapped up their posts in the upper parts of Kaghan Valley after the snowfall.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2025