Kabul: A powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake killed almost 180 people in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan Monday, officials said. A tally from local and provincial authorities in Pakistan put the death toll there at 147, while at least 33 were confirmed dead in Afghanistan.
Notwithstanding the chill in bilateral ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday reached out to Pakistan in the wake of the major earthquake as he called up Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and offered assistance besides condolences for the loss of lives.
“Spoke to PM Nawaz Sharif & expressed condolences on the loss of lives due to the quake. Offered all possible assistance from India,” Modi tweeted. Pakistan was severely affected by today’s 7.5 magnitude earthquake, whose epicentre was in Jarm area in north Afghanistan.
Modi also thanked Sharif for ensuring return of Geeta, the differently-abled girl who had crossed over to Pakistan many years ago, and came back home on Monday. “Expressed my gratitude to PM Nawaz Sharif for his efforts that ensured Geeta returned home,” Modi said in another tweet.
Modi reached out to Pakistan despite the frosty relations between the two countries and the renewed cross-border firing by Pakistan in which one civilian has been killed in Jammu and Kashmir and several others injured, besides leading to a scare in the border villages.
Thousands of frightened people rushed into the streets across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India as the quake was felt across a swathe of the subcontinent. The quake was centred near Jurm in northeast Afghanistan, 250 kilometres (160 miles) from the capital Kabul and at a depth of 213.5 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.
The epicentre is just a few hundred kilometres from the site of a 7.6 magnitude quake that struck in October 2005, killing more than 75,000 people and displacing some 3.5 million more, although that quake was much shallower.
The death toll rose rapidly amid reports of buildings reduced to rubble, with Pakistan heavily hit. Horrifying news emerged of at least 12 schoolgirls being trampled to death in the northern Afghan province.
“The students rushed to escape the school building in Taluqan city (capital of Takhar), triggering a stampede,” Takhar education department chief Enayat Naweed said. “Twelve students, all minors, were killed and 35 others were injured.”
Separately, in Nangarhar province, bordering Pakistan, six people were killed and 69 others were injured, Najeeb Kamawal, head of the local public hospital said. At least 28 people were known to have died in Pakistan’s northern tribal areas, 20 in the northwest, three in Gilgit-Baltistan and one in Pakistani Kashmir, various officials said.
