Quake rattles Afghanistan, other countries

KABUL (Pajhwok): An earthquake, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale rattled Afghanistan on Friday night, a day after the country was struck by a moderate tremor of 4.9 magnitude.

The quake was also felt in Tajikistan, Pakistan and India, media reports said on Saturday. Information about casualties and destruction was not immediately available.

Mostly northern and northeastern parts of Afghanistan were struck by the earthquake, which also jolted Tajikistan and both zones of Kashmir, administered by Pakistan and India.

Reuters reported strong tremors were also felt in New Delhi and Srinagar. The US Geological Survey put the quake’s magnitude at 5.9 which centred at 35km west of Tajikistan.

The jolts were felt in Islamabad, parts of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The quake originated at 10.02pm and its epicentre was Tajikistan. The earthquake struck at a depth of 80 kilometres, Pakistan’s Met Office said.

Strong tremors were also felt in the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, New Delhi and Uttarakhand.

The Tajikistan-Xinjiang border region was also jolted at a depth of 86km. The epicenter is a largely unpopulated and mountain terrain, part of the Pamir mountains.

It is located in the Badakhshan National Park, part of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) in southeastern Tajikistan.

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