16 quakes hit Ghazni since Thursday, causing panic

GHAZNI CITY (Pajhwok): Consecutive earthquakes since a week have worried residents of southern Ghazni province.

Ghazni residents said 16 quakes rocked districts since last Thursday, causing panic but no financial damage or casualties.

They said a black smoke was also seen rising into the skies in Tamki area in Gahwara mountains between Qarabagh and Jaghori districts. The power of the quake was strong in villages nearby the mountains.

Momin Khan, a resident of Ghazni City, the provincial capital, said Ghazni was hit by several minor earthquakes over the past few days.

The quakes were mostly felt in Nahor, Waghaz, Gilan, Jaghori, Qarabagh and Jaghato districts, he said.

“Strong sounds were also heard at the time of earthquakes, the sounds are like a fighter jet comes down and drops bombs,” Khan said, adding that consecutive quakes had worried Ghazni people.

“My children could not sleep for two nights, we spent last night outside the room in cold weather due fear of quakes,” he said.

Abdul Karim, a resident of Waghaz district, also said they felt several quakes. “But I and some other people here think these are not earthquakes, but caused by heavy atomic and hydrogen bombs tested by foreign forces in our area,” he said.

“It is also possible that some people may blow heavy bombs underground to extract natural resources,” he added.

Hashmatullah, a resident of Ghazni and a geography student at Kabul.

He said two quakes in Ghazni were as strong as seven to nine on the Richter scale. “A natural earthquake is at least 180 kilometers deep and the quakes in Ghazni are 23 kilometers deep,” Hashmatullah said.

He added this kind of quakes should be seriously investigated as they seemed unnatural. He also believed some foreign countries were possibly testing their weapons in Ghazni that caused such shakes.

Governor Mohammad Aman Hamim said quakes had worried all the people of Ghazni. “I assure people that no foreign country could test their weapons here,” he said.

Aman said he had shared the issue with relevant organs in Kabul and the causes of quakes would be revealed soon.

This comes as several earthquakes shocked parts of Afghanistan this solar year.

At least 115 people were killed, 538 people were injured and 4,000 houses damaged by the earthquake that struck major cities including Kabul, Jalalabad, Faizabad, Taloqan and Asadabad.

On December, 26, 2015, a strong earthquake rattled parts of Afghanistan, injuring a dozen of people in Nangarhar and damaging 280 houses in Badakhshan province.

The 6.3 magnitude quake, with its epicenter in the Ishkashim district of northeastern Badakhshan province, struck eastern, northeastern, central and southeastern parts of Afghanistan.

A 5.3-magnitude earthquake on January 2 shook central capital Kabul and a number of provinces and parts of Pakistan, including the nation’s capital Islamabad.

The epicentre of the earthquake was the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan (36.50N, 71.09E), with a focal dept of 175kms.

A moderate earthquake on November 23, 2015 jolted parts of Afghanistan and destroyed a number of houses in northeastern Badakhshan province.

Measuring 5.9 on the open-ended Richter scale, the epicenter of the quake lay in the Khalkhan village of Badakhshan’s Zibak district. The quake had shocked the capital Kabul and a number of eastern provinces, but caused no casualties.

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