Afghanistan, Sept. 7 -- On the night of August 31, eastern Afghanistan was struck by a powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake with its epicenter near Jalalabad in Nangarhar province. The tremor, recorded at 11:47 p.m. local time, devastated the mountainous terrain, flattening villages and reducing thousands of homes to rubble. More than 1,400 people lost their lives, over 3,000 were injured, and countless families were displaced. The quake's impact reverberated across South Asia, felt as far as Pakistan and India, highlighting the seismic vulnerability of the Hindu Kush region where tectonic plates frequently collide with destructive force.
The earthquake struck at a time of deep fragility for Afghanistan, a nation grappling with widespread pov...