- Quake epicentre located 60 kilometres north-east of Sibi.
- Balochistan’s Ziarat suffered mild tremors on November 8.
- Ziarat’s 2008 quake claimed 200 lives, injured around 500.
QUETTA: Mild earthquake tremors were felt in parts of the Sibi district in Balochistan on Tuesday, giving people a brief scare.
According to officials at the seismic centre, the quake had a magnitude of 3.1 on the Richter scale while its depth was recorded at around ten kilometres.
The centre reported that the epicentre was located roughly 60 kilometres north-east of Sibi.
The tremors did not last long. There are no reports of damage or casualties so far. However, authorities continue to monitor the situation.
Parts of the province faced minor tremors earlier this month also. The National Seismic Monitoring Centre (NSMC) of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) reported that quake tremors shook Ziarat and surrounding areas, registering a magnitude of 5.0.
The November 8 quake’s epicentre was pinpointed 67 kilometres northeast of Quetta. However, no reports of damage or casualties emerged.
The last major earthquake to hit Ziarat struck in 2008, claiming more than 200 lives and leaving around 500 injured.
Entire villages were flattened, and hundreds of homes and government buildings were reduced to rubble, forcing over 15,000 people from their houses.
The worst-hit areas were the small settlements of Ziarat, where roughly 170 people died, most of them women and children.
While other districts, including Pishin, Bolan, Chaman, and Quetta, also reported casualties and damage, according to reports.
The country has long been vulnerable to natural disasters, from the 2005 northern quake that killed 73,000 to the devastating 1935 earthquake in Quetta, which claimed around 30,000 lives.
Balochistan province largely sits along a seismic hotspot, where the Indian plate pushes against the Eurasian plate.
Balochistan, the country’s largest province, remains sparsely populated, making rescue and relief operations especially difficult.
A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif early on November 3, killing at least seven people and injuring about 150 others, just months after a quake and strong aftershocks killed more than 2,200 people at the end of August.
