Earthquake: Search on for survivors after 1,400 deaths in Afghanistan
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The Taliban-controlled government said on Tuesday that a search operation is on to look for survivors of the Sunday night temblor that killed at least 1,400 and wounded over 3,000 in one of the deadliest earthquakes to hit Afghanistan in decades.
The casualty count has mounted steadily since the 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit, devastating remote areas in mountainous provinces near the border with Pakistan, the media reported.
On Tuesday, India rushed relief materials to Afghanistan to help victims of the quake. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar spoke with his Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi to assess the situation and pledge more aid.
Chief government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on X on Tuesday that 1,411 people were killed and 3,124 people were injured in the hard-hit province of Kunar alone. Another dozen people were killed and hundreds were injured in neighbouring Nangarhar province.
The temblor could impact “hundreds of thousands,” said United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan Indrika Ratwatte.
Rescuers desperately searched for survivors in the rubble of homes flattened in Kunar. Emergency operations continued throughout the night, the head of the Kunar Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Ehsanullah Ehsan, was quoted as saying. He said there were “still many injured people left in the distant villages” in need of evacuation to hospitals.
Villagers in the affected areas joined the rescue efforts, using their bare hands to clear debris from mud and stone homes built into steep valleys.
Some of the hardest-hit villages remain inaccessible due to blocked roads.
The earthquake epicentre was about 27 kilometres (17 miles) from Jalalabad, according to the US Geological Survey, which said it struck just eight kilometres below Earth’s surface. Such relatively shallow quakes can cause more damage, especially since the majority of Afghans live in low-rise, mud-brick homes vulnerable to collapse.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement the organization was working with authorities to “swiftly assess needs, provide emergency assistance and stand ready to mobilise additional support,” and announced an initial aid of USD 5 million.
Many of those living in the quake-hit villages were among the more than four million Afghans who have returned to the country from Iran and Pakistan in recent years.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindukush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasia and India tectonic plates.
In October 2023, western Herat province was devastated by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 1,500 people and damaged or destroyed more than 63,000 homes.
A 5.9-magnitude quake struck the eastern province of Paktika in June 2022, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
