6.8 Quake Jolts Pakistan; at Least 105 Reported Dead

A powerful earthquake jolted Pakistan before dawn today, sending panic-stricken residents running into the streets. At least 105 people were killed and 200 injured, the official news agency said.

The quake, centered hundreds of miles away in neighboring Afghanistan, had a magnitude of 6.8. The minute-long tremor at 4 a.m. struck as many of the victims slept in fragile sun-baked mud huts.

The Associated Press of Pakistan predicted a steadily increasing death toll throughout the day as reports from remote parts of this impoverished country trickled in.

At least four people were killed by the quake in neighboring Afghanistan, which also jolted parts of India and Soviet Central Asia, the official Kabul Radio said.

The Soviet news agency Tass said the quake triggered landslides and destroyed communications, power lines, roads and several residences in Tadzhikistan.

Most of the damage in Pakistan was confined to an area only miles from the Afghan border.

Pakistan’s state-run television reported that more than 100 homes were destroyed in the northwest frontier region.

The quake rattled windows in the capital of Islamabad for about a minute and sent frightened residents fleeing into the streets.

Among the worst affected were Afghan refugees living in squalid camps throughout the border region.

More than 3 million Afghan refugees fled to Pakistan after 1979 when the Soviet Union intervened militarily in their homeland.

They are scattered throughout the northwest in tent villages and dried-mud homes.