By Muhammad Luqman
A massive earthquake of 6.2 magnitude on Richter Scale jolted Afghanistan and various parts of Pakistan on Wednesday.
According US Geological Survey (USGS) , the epicenter of the quake was near Afghanistan’s border with Tajikistan in the Hindu Kush mountains.
However, Pakistan Meteorological Department recorded the magnitude at 6.4 at Richter Scale while the depth of the quake was at 97 kilometers as compared 111 kilometers reported by the US seismological agency.
In Pakistan, the quake was felt in the capital Islamabad, Lahore, Faisalabad , Peshawar and other parts of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa provinces.
This was the second earthquake felt in northern half of Pakistan on Wednesday. Earlier, the earthquake of 5.1 magnitude was felt in Peshawar and other cities in the morning.
According to Indian media, People in the Indian capital Delhi also felt earthquake tremors.
The quake also jolted north Indian states of Punjab and Haryana and Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates, according to seismologists.
A devastating 7.5-magnitude quake that struck Badakhshan in October 2015 triggered landslides and flattened buildings, killing more than 380 people across the region including 248 in Pakistan.
Most devastating quake experienced by Pakistan and Kashmir during the recent years has the October 8, 2005 quake that killed more than 84,000 people , mostly in Balakot and Muzaffarabad cities.
