[12][13][14] According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Pakistan is located in one of the most earthquake active zones in the world.

[17] The last major earthquake in the same region of similar magnitude (7.6 Mw) was almost exactly ten years prior in October 2005, which resulted in 87,351 deaths, 75,266 injured, 2.8 million people being displaced, and 250,000 farm animals dying.

According to these studies melting glaciers and rising sea levels disturb the balance of pressure on Earth's tectonic plates thus causing an increase in the frequency and intensity of earthquakes.

[8][9] Among the fatalities were five in Jalalabad, and 12 schoolgirls aged 10 to 15 who died in a crowd crush while trying to exit a school building in Takhar.

[10] A Delhi Metro spokesman told AFP "All of around 190 trains plying on the tracks were stopped at the time of the earthquake."

[32] In Tajikistan, 14 children suffered injuries in Yovon District when stairs at a local school collapsed.