Islamabad, November 21
Twenty persons were killed and an unknown number injured by two strong earthquakes which hit Pakistan’s remote mountainous north early today, the police said.
In India, Srinagar and its adjoining areas in Jammu and Kashmir were also rocked by an earthquake of moderate intensity in the wee hours today.
“We have reports that 20 persons have been killed in three villages,’’ a police official said from the mountain town of Chilas on the famous Karakorum Highway linking the Pakistani capital Islamabad to China.
“Police parties have gone to three other villages from where we have heard no report so far,” the official added.
The official APP news agency reported that two quakes, measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale jolted the northern areas at 2:30 am when people were in bed.
The casualties were recorded in Daimer district, 80 km (50 miles) west of Gilgit, the main town in the region. The same region was hit hard by strong earthquakes earlier this month in which 17 persons were killed.
The Web site of the US Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Centre reported that an earthquake of intensity 5.8 on the Richter scale took place today 45 km south-south-east of Gilgit, with its epicentre at a depth of 33 km.
Reuters, UNI
