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ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: A strong earthquake triggered panic on Tuesday among survivors of October’s quake disaster in the NWFP, Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir, forcing people out of temporary shelters and into the freezing Himalayan winter.
The earthquake — measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale — was felt in Peshawar, Chitral, Dir, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Sialkot, the Northern Areas, Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Rawlakot, Balakot, Battagram and Abbottabad besides adjoining areas in Afghanistan and occupied Kashmir.
No loss of life was reported from anywhere. About 15 people were injured in different parts of the NWFP.
According to the Meteorological Department, the quake was recorded at 2:18am and jolted the areas for 20 to 30 seconds. Its epicentre was in the Hindukush mountainous region in Afghanistan.
The met office said it was a fresh and different quake as its epicentre was some 300km in the north west of the October quake’s epicentre.
About 1,464 aftershocks, measuring 5 to 6.4 on the Richter scale, have so far been recorded since October 8. The major aftershock measuring 6.4 was recorded on October 9, and another measuring 6 was recorded on November 6. The last aftershock of the October quake, measuring 3.8, was recorded on Monday evening.
Tuesday’s quake woke up the residents of a vast area of Punjab and forced them to rush out of their homes in a state of shock. In Rawalpindi and Islamabad, residents of multi-storey buildings spent the freezing night in the open with their children.
Landslides were reported from Chitral and areas which had been severely hit by previous quake. Some mud-houses in Allai and damaged houses in other quake-affected areas caved in.
According to Our Correspondent in Gilgit, landslides caused by the quake blocked the Karakoram Highway in upper Hunza and other roads in the Northern Areas.
The quake damaged boundary walls of hundreds of houses in Gilgit and other districts of the Northern Areas.
Our Peshawar Correspondent adds: The powerful quake jolted several parts of the NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Tremors were felt in Peshawar, Chitral, Mansehra, Upper and Lower Dir and Fata, an official of the Metrological Department said.
People ran out of houses and buildings in panic and remained outdoors for some time in biting cold.
The Met official said about 15 people suffered injuries and were treated in three major hospitals of the provincial capital.
A student of the University of Peshawar suffered serious head injuries after he jumped from the third floor of his hostel when the quake shook the building. He was shifted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex where his condition was said to be critical.
AFGHANISTAN: At least 15 people were injured in Afghanistan as the massive tremor destroyed 200 houses in the north-eastern province of Badakshan and killed 400 domestic animals, APP reported quoting the Afghan interior ministry.
The ministry was awaiting reports from outlying areas of the province.
The quake injured five people in Jalalabad, capital of the eastern province of Nangarhar.
In Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir, many survivors of the October quake rushed from their tents and houses still left standing by the original disaster.
“It was very strong. People came out of their tents and started screaming and reciting verses from Holy Quran,” resident Sarfraz Ahmad said. The people living in buildings spared by the big quake were the most terrified,” he added.
“Now everyone is getting back into their shelters. They are reluctant, but they have no choice because the cold is unbearable.”
Despite the panic, Pakistani and Indian officials reported no immediate casualties.
“Our men are surveying positions in remote villages but there are no casualties so far,” said a police spokesman in Srinagar.
Haleema Akhter said seven members of her family had braved the freezing winter cold for 30 minutes after the temblor shook them from their beds.
“It was only after my two little children started shivering in cold that we decided to go back,” she said.
The tremor triggered minor landslides in northern villages, already destroyed by the October earthquake, also forcing survivors to spend the night in the open.
“We raced out of our tents and tin sheds when soil and stones started rolling down from the mountain tops,” said Nadeem Abassi from Gwalta village in the Uri region.
The Hindukush is a sparsely populated area of small, remote villages that had been jolted by several quakes in the past years, being near the collision of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates where seismic activity is high.
An earthquake measuring 6.1 in Afghanistan’s Hindukush region in March 2,002 killed around 1,000 people and destroyed several villages.
According to a Reuters report, the Indian capital New Delhi and the capital of held Kashmir, Srinagar, were also shaken by the Tuesday quake, reports Reuters.
