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More than 1,100 people died and thousands were injured after an earthquake of magnitude 6 struck the rugged eastern region of Afghanistan, the latest such event following an increase in seismic activity.

Here are previous similar disasters of recent years in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, which lies at the intersection of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.

2025

• A magnitude 5.6 quake hit Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region on August 27.
• A magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region on August 19, at a depth of 186 km (115 miles).
• A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck central Pakistan on June 29, with its epicenter at a depth of 149 km (93 miles).
• A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Pakistan on May 10, the European Mediterranean Seismological Center said.
• Quakes of magnitude 5.6 and 5.8 hit the Hindu Kush and Afghanistan-Tajikistan border regions, on April 16 and 19, respectively.
• A magnitude 5 earthquake struck Pakistan on April 12, at a depth of 39 km (25 miles).
• Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi has been hit by several moderate or minor tremors in March and June.

2024

• A magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan on October 17.
• An earthquake of magnitude 5.75 struck Pakistan at a depth of 10 km (6 miles) on September 11.
• Earthquakes of magnitude 5.5 and 5.8 struck Pakistan between March 19 and March 20.
• An earthquake of magnitude 5.5 hit northwestern Kashmir on February 19.
• A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan on January 11.
• A magnitude 5 earthquake hit the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region on January 5.

2023

• An earthquake of magnitude 5.3 hit the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region on November 15.
• At least four earthquakes hit Afghanistan between October 7 and 15, the two deadliest in the western province of Herat, killing about 1,000 people and destroying entire villages.
• On August 6, an earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hit the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border.
• Earthquakes of magnitude 5.6 and 5.7 hit the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan on May 3 and on August 5, respectively.
• An earthquake of magnitude 6.5 hit northern Afghanistan in late March, killing at least 13.
• A magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan on January 5.

2022

• An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 hit southeastern Afghanistan on December 16.
• Over September 5 and 6, at least two earthquakes struck Afghanistan, with one killing at least eight.
• A magnitude 5.6 quake struck Pakistan’s southwestern region on August 1.
• A magnitude 6 earthquake in Afghanistan killed more than 1,000 people in June.
• A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan on February 5.
• An earthquake of magnitude 5.6, at a depth of 30 km (19 miles), hit western Afghanistan on January 17.

2021

• At least 15 people were killed after an earthquake struck southern Pakistan on October 7.
• A magnitude 4.6 earthquake, at a depth of 17.6 km (11 miles), shook Afghanistan on May 19.

KARACHI: Pakistani health authorities vaccinated over seven million, or 24.9% of the targeted 28.7 million children against poliovirus during the first day of an ongoing countrywide drive against the disease this week, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said on Tuesday. 

Pakistan kicked off the week-long vaccination campaign on Monday in 99 high-risk districts across the country. Pakistani health authorities said their target was to vaccinate 28.7 million children under the age of five against poliovirus, with the campaign set to conclude on Sept. 7. 

Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only protection is repeated doses of oral vaccine for every child under five, along with timely routine immunizations. Pakistan has reported 24 polio cases so far this year including 16 from the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), six from the southern Sindh province and one each from Punjab and northern Gilgit Baltistan (GB).

“On the first day, vaccination of 24.9% of children across the country was completed,” the NEOC said. “The polio campaign is being conducted simultaneously in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

The NEOC said 30% of children were vaccinated in Punjab, 22% in Sindh, 29% in KP, 20% in Balochistan, 18% in Islamabad, 21% in GB and 31% in Azad Kashmir on Monday.

The authority urged parents to cooperate with polio teams and complete the immunization timely to stem the spread of the infection.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic. Pakistan has made significant progress in curbing the virus in the past, with annual cases dropping from around 20,000 in the early 1990s to just eight in 2018. 

Pakistan reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021, but the country saw a sharp resurgence in 2024 with 74 cases recorded.

Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994, but efforts to eradicate the virus have been repeatedly undermined by vaccine misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners who claim that immunization is a foreign plot to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western espionage.

Militant groups have also frequently targeted polio vaccination teams and the security personnel assigned to protect them, often resulting in deadly attacks, particularly in KP and Balochistan.