Earthquake hits Islamabad, Peshawar

An earthquake jolted several parts of the country including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, and their adjoining areas.

The tremors were felt in several cities including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mardan, Kohat, Swat, Lower Dir, Malakand, as well as in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) Muzaffarabad.

The magnitude of the quake was 5.3 on Richter Scale which jolted the aforementioned regions at 8:24pm.

The epicentre of the earthquake was the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan, and its depth was 130 kilometres, according to the seismic centre.

Natural disasters such as earthquakes are not uncommon in Pakistan, as the country is situated on the boundary of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.

Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.

Recent earthquakes underscore the importance of disaster preparedness and mitigation measures.