MANSEHRA: A cold wave swept the Kaghan valley following the first snowfall of the season.

The snowfall began in the evening and continued all through the night intermittently.

“The snowfall has caused cold in valley and even beyond it,” tourist Mohammad Waqar.

He said the snow also fell in the area housing the Saiful Muluk lake.

“Tourists are visiting the Saiful Muluk lake to see snow, which has made the lake more beautiful and charming,” he said.

The tourists said the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road, which linked Gilgit-Baltistan with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was open to traffic despite snowfall.

They, however, said heavy snowfall would suspend traffic on the road.

SIT-IN ENDS: The people, whose land has been acquired for Dasu hydropower project, ended a sit-in on Saturday at the request of the local administration.

The two weeks long sit-in by the 80-member committee of landowners had suspended work on the project.

Deputy commissioner of Upper Kohistan district Arifullah Yousafzai told protesters in Barsian area that the government would soon notify 40 per cent increase in prices of land acquired for the power project as the Executive Committee of National Economic Council had approved it.

He said the project would help develop Kohistan and address power crisis in the country.

AZADI MARCH: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Malik Naveed on Saturday claimed that over 100,000 residents of Mansehra district would participate in the party’s Oct 27 Azadi March in Islamabad.

He told reporters here on Saturday that the people were fed up the PTI government over failure to deliver, so they wanted to oust them.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2019