The quake’s epicentre was located at a latitude of 36.10°N and a longitude of 71.20°E, with a depth of 130 kilometers.
In the old and new Great Game, Afghanistan has held a central position. Peter Hopkirk, in his path-breaking book The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, chronicled the 19th-century geopolitical chessboard involving Britain and Russia.
There is an unconfirmed report that the US has redeployed at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan. This base was the command centre for NATO and US forces throughout their occupation of Afghanistan.
Within Pakistan, the unforgiving regions of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan have had an especially violent ‘gun-culture’, for a long time. Bloody, inter-tribal, anti- ‘foreigner’ and familial feuds are a way of life, and often the family sentinels peer at their neighbours through rifle ports.
Afghan refugees awaiting resettlement to the United States have written an 'open letter' to Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to immediately halt their deportation to Afghanistan as the March 31 deadline approaches closer.
Following the Taliban takeover in August last year, thousands of Afghans left the country fearing reprisal from the Islamic group.
Acute malnutrition rates in 28 out of 34 provinces are high with more than 3.5 million children in need of nutrition treatment support, said Dr Alakbarov.
Economists have suggested that the TAPI pipeline project would also provide job opportunities for the Afghan citizens.
The Afghan diplomats, appointed by the former government, are now left with one month to apply for residency or temporary humanitarian parole to remain in the US before being deported as they could be under threat by the Taliban-led government if they return home.
A weak Afghan government would not benefit anyone, he said, adding that the efforts to undermine the current government must stop.
