Twenty years ago, the earth trembled in large swathes of Pakistan’s northern belt, hitting Kashmir and its surroundings with unprecedented ferocity. The quake had an intensity of 7.6 on the Richter scale and was so extreme that it was experienced in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, India and China. Rated as Pakistan’s deadliest earthquake, it killed nearly 90,000 people and left millions homeless. It all happened in 60 seconds, but generations today still shudder at the memory of powerful forces that shrugged off its inhabitants in one minute.
