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.
The promise to contain terrorist groups must also be followed with more meaningful actions, though Lyons suggested "a certain amount of realism" will be required here.
The United Nations has warned that as many as one million Afghan children are in danger of starving and most of the country’s 38 million people are living below the poverty line. Faced with the Taliban’s request for funds, Western powers are likely to put the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan high on their agenda, along with their recurring demand for the Taliban administration to share power with Afghanistan’s minority ethnic and religious groups.
Taliban officials meanwhile have said they want good relations with the world while claiming to have fulfilled the promises made to the world for recognition.
The EU has said that the funds are set to support projects for education, health, and the livelihoods of Afghan people.
Afghanistan is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and needs immediate financial help who are facing acute hunger combined with a severe drought and the coronavirus pandemic.
