Islamabad: At least 49 people were killed and scores of others injured after earthquakes rocked Pakistan and Indonesia's Maluku islands last week. Twenty six people were killed and 300 injured when a 5.8 magnitude quake jolted the northern parts of Pakistan, including Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Islamabad, while 23 people were killed and many others injured when quake hit Indonesia's remote Maluku islands, destroying homes and triggering landslides.
According to US Geological Survey, the epicentre of the quake near New Mirpur in PoK was at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km. Several cities including Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Skardu, Kohat, Charsadda, Kasur, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Sialkot, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Chitral, Malakand, Multan, Shangla, Okara, Nowshera, Attock and Jhang felt the tremor. While tremors were also felt in several parts of North India, no casualties or injuries were reported. People rushed out of their homes and offices in panic in several parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was in New York to attend the UN General Assembly session, expressed grief over the loss of human life. He directed all the concerned departments to provide immediate assistance to the quake-hit areas. President Arif Alvi also expressed deep sorrow over the loss of lives.
Pakistan Meteorological Department's earthquake centre said the 5.8-magnitude earthquake was located near the mountainous city of Jehlum in Punjab province. However, Minister for Science Fawad Chaudhry said that the intensity of the quake was 7.1. Some houses collapsed in Mirpur following the earthquake, Deputy Commissioner Raja Qaiser said. Parts of a mosque also collapsed in the area. Emergency was declared in hospitals across PoK. TV channels showed the footage of heavily damaged roads in Mirpur, with many vehicles overturned. Several cars fell into the deep cracks on the roads. The building of the state-run Broadcasting House in Mirpur was badly damaged. Earlier in 2005, a powerful quake killed nearly 90,000 people in PoK and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Quake rocks eastern Indonesia
Terrified people ran into the streets as buildings fell in around them after the 6.5-magnitude quake hit in Maluku Province. “The total number of people who died in the earthquake is 23,” National disaster mitigation spokesman Agus Wibowo said in statement. “At least 100 people were injured and more than 2,000 evacuated,” he added.
The US Geological Survey said the quake struck about 37 km northeast of Ambon in Maluku Province. People in Ambon, a city of about 4,00,000 people, were seen helping injured residents with blood-stained clothes, while images showed wrecked homes with collapsed walls and rubble strewn on the ground. “The impact was felt across Ambon city and surrounding areas,” said Rahmat Triyono, head of the earthquake and tsunami division at Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
The area was hit by at least two dozen aftershocks including one that measured 5. 6 magnitude, Triyono said. Initial reports said the quake struck offshore, but later analysis found it hit onshore, raising the potential for damage, according to Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency. The Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth. It experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.
