ISLAMABAD: An earthquake that Pakistan’s meteorological agency measured at magnitude 6.2 shook parts of the country late Friday, sending residents into the streets in Islamabad and several northwestern cities, while authorities said initial checks had not produced immediate reports of fatalities or major damage inside Pakistan. The deadliest reported impact was in Afghanistan, where officials said eight people were killed and one child was injured in a house collapse on the outskirts of Kabul, placing the regional toll outside Pakistan even as the tremor was widely felt there.
Pakistan’s Meteorological Department said the earthquake struck at 9:13 p.m. local time, with a depth of 190 kilometers and an epicenter in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region, a seismically active mountain zone that frequently sends tremors across borders. Officials and local reports said the shaking was felt in Islamabad, Peshawar, Chitral, Swat and Shangla. International seismic agencies assessed the same event at a lower magnitude, with external readings around 5.8 to 5.9, leaving a difference between Pakistan’s official measure and some global assessments of the earthquake.
Afghan authorities said the fatalities in Kabul occurred when a residential structure collapsed, and local officials said those killed were members of the same family. There were no immediate reports of significant destruction from areas closer to the remote mountainous epicenter, where information often emerges more slowly after strong tremors. The depth of the quake meant the shaking traveled across a broad area, producing reports from multiple cities in Pakistan and extending concern beyond the immediate epicentral zone in the first hours after the event.
Initial Assessments Remained Limited
In Pakistan, public reporting in the immediate aftermath centered on area checks, incoming status updates and the absence of confirmed large-scale damage rather than any broader emergency operation. Islamabad police directed officers to assess their respective areas and submit situation reports, while rescue officials in Rawalpindi said they had not received reports of casualties or emergency incidents. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, rescue control rooms also said they had not yet received calls from the public, leaving the initial picture dependent on routine checks and early official communication.
Punjab’s disaster management authority said no loss of life or property had been recorded in the province in the first assessments and that inspections of public buildings were under way. Provincial and district emergency operation centers remained open as officials continued gathering information from districts where the quake had been felt. Even so, the first official accounts remained narrow in scope, focused on immediate status verification rather than a fuller accounting of disruptions, damage patterns or any longer operational strain that a stronger or shallower earthquake might have imposed.
Cross-Border Tremors Renewed Seismic Concerns
The earthquake again drew attention to the Hindu Kush fault zone, where deep seismic events can be felt across long distances because of their depth and the underlying tectonic interaction between the Indian and Eurasian plates. Tremors were also reported in Kabul and parts of northern India, illustrating how earthquakes centered in Afghanistan can rapidly affect neighboring population centers. The remote terrain around the epicenter and the depth of the shock complicated the early picture, leaving authorities across the region reliant on fragmented first-hour reports while broader conditions were still being established.
By Saturday, the confirmed deaths remained tied to the house collapse in Kabul, while Pakistani authorities had not reported immediate fatalities or major destruction from the cities where the earthquake was felt. The event nonetheless exposed the familiar pattern that follows deep regional earthquakes: widespread shaking, incomplete information in the opening hours and a dependence on preliminary official checks before a fuller picture becomes available. The quake also reinforced how seismic activity in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush continues to reverberate across Pakistan with little warning. – By Content Syndication Services.