Central, Northern Balochistan in the grip of severe cold wave
Central, Northern Balochistan in the grip of severe cold wave
Haseeb ur Rehman
Balochistan

QUETTA: The Provincial Capital and major parts of Northern and Central Balochistan are in a grip of severe cold after the areas lashed by the icy Siberian winds since Sunday night.

QUETTA: The Provincial Capital and major parts of Northern and Central Balochistan are in a grip of severe cold after the areas lashed by the icy Siberian winds since Sunday night.

The icy winds brought the Quetta temperature to minus 7 degrees Centigrade, Ziarat minus 9, Kalat minus 8 and Khuzdar minus five.

Even the desert township of Dalbandin faced severe cold where the temperature came down to Minus 2 with strong icy winds blowing the entire region. The Met office forecast said that the cold wave will persist for few more days.

The Quetta Valley will continue to shiver for three to four more days making the life of more difficult with massive load shedding of electricity and suspension of natural gas supply for home heating and preparing food in this harsh winter days.

Siberian winds that started blowing on Sunday morning forced the people to stay indoors. The roads and streets of the provincial capital Quetta presented a deserted look due to harsh cold weather. Though, the shops and shopping malls were opened but there was very fewer customers were seen in the markets for shopping. Markets and shopping centers closed early in the evening. Vehicular traffic was also remained thin as majority of the vehicles remained off the road. The gas supply to many locality of Quetta city and in surrounding areas remained suspended causing greater hardship to the local residents. “We are receiving very low gas pressure,” Javed Ahmed, a resident of Shahbaz said, adding that the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) started unannounced gas load shedding in Quetta.

The people living in the outskirts of provincial capital Quetta complaints that there is no gas supply in the surrounding areas since the cold wave lashing the area. “There is no gas supply even in low pressure,” Muhammad Gul, a resident of Killi Qambrani said. Gas supply was also severely affected in Ziarat, Pishin, Mastung, Kalat and some other areas.

Reports reaching here from other majority cities of northern and central Balochistan, including Kalat, Mastung, Pishin, Ziarat, Naushki, Qila Abdullah, Chaman, Qila Saifullah, Muslim Bagh and Khanozai were also in the grip of cold wave.