A devastating earthquake of 6.1 intensity rocked the southeastern Paktika province of Afghanistan at 1.30 am on Wednesday. The quake’s epicenter was some 44 km from the city of Khost at a depth of 10km. Over 1000 people are reportedly dead and at least 1500 injured. Reports say sevaral villages in Paktika are in rubbles. People are stuck under the debris of houses built using stone walls and clay bricks.
Paktika’s head of the information and culture department, Mohammad Amin Huzaifa said, “People are digging grave after grave.” Rescue in remote mountainous villages got hampered as helicopters could not land due to heavy rains. Also, mudslides and rockfalls are slowing down ground relief operations.
European seismological agency said tremors were felt more than 500 km away in neighboring Pakistan and India. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan is struggling to speed up rescue operations due to a shortage of resources. Taliban’s Supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzaza, who remains reclusive and away from public appearance, has sought the international community and humanitarian organizations to help Afghanistan.
The United Nations, which sent its assessment team, is rushing aid to the quake-hit region. The agency said medical units, trauma kits, emergency shelters, and other relief materials are en route to Kabul. Neighboring Pakistan and Iran are also sending relief materials to Afghanistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressing anguish, tweeted that India is ready to provide Kabul with “all possible disaster relief material at the earliest.”
Afghanistan is already facing a food crisis, with millions of people facing the pangs of hunger and poverty. Earlier eight percent of Afghanistan’s budget came from foreign financial aid. However, once the Taliban took over the country in Aug 2021, support from the international community shrunk.
The quake in Paktika is the deadliest natural disaster Afghanistan is facing in two decades, after twin earthquakes that shattered the Hindukush region in Mar 2002, killing 1,100 people.
Photo Credit: AP