Devastating Earthquake Hits Afghanistan: 800+ Dead, Thousands Injured as Tremors Felt from Kabul to Islamaba

A devastating earthquake hit Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least 800 people and injuring thousands of others. The quake was experienced in eastern parts of the country, including Nur Gul, Soki, Watpur, Manogi, and Chapadare districts, and even some areas in neighboring Pakistan.

Sediqullah Quraishi Badloon, a provincial communications official, said the majority of deaths were in Kunar, with nine dead in Nangarhar. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck about 27 km east-northeast of Jalalabad, a city of close to 200,000 people, at 11:47 pm local time (1917 GMT). The initial earthquake was followed by at least three aftershocks.

The casualties and injured are in large numbers, but the area is hard to reach so our teams are present at the spot," said Health Minister Sharafat Zaman. Najibullah Hanif, the head of Kunar's provincial information department, added that hundreds of wounded people were airlifted to hospitals and that the number of fatalities is certain to increase as information comes in from remote districts.

The earthquake, which occurred at shallow depth of about 8–10 km, resulted in mud and stone houses along the mountainous frontier with Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province collapsing. Rescue operations were ongoing in several districts in an effort to rescue survivors from the debris. Authorities reported several children dying when the roofs of their houses collapsed.

In Jalalabad and surrounding cities, houses swayed for a few seconds, and the quake was even felt in Islamabad, 370 km away, AFP said.

Afghanistan is especially vulnerable to earthquakes because much of the population lives in weak buildings along geological fault lines. With the country lying at the meeting point of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates, particularly in the Hindu Kush region, the nation is subjected to major seismic threats. Every significant earthquake adds another complication to the process of reconstruction in a country already weakened by years of war.