The director of Pakistan’s National Seismic Monitoring Centre (NSMC), Zahid Rafi, on Wednesday refuted social media rumours that an earthquake is about to strike Pakistan.
The director explained to Daily Nation Pakistan that earthquakes are a natural occurrence and that no one can predict when they will occur.
“If the earthquake was known in advance, there would not have been so much loss of life and property in Turkey,” the NSMC chief said.
He continued by saying that little tremors were nothing new for the nation. “Pakistan experiences and will continue to experience mild earthquakes.”
He stated that there was no similarity between the fault lines in Turkey and Pakistan in an effort to allay people’s anxieties.
The director emphasised that there was no “scientific basis” for the social media rumours that an earthquake comparable to those that recently shook Turkey and Syria was on the way to Pakistan within the next few days, and he categorically denied them.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday was followed by an almost-identical earthquake hours later that destroyed hundreds of structures, including hospitals, schools, and residential buildings.
Over 11,000 people have now died as a result of the earthquake, and thousands more have been injured or made homeless in Turkish and northern Syrian cities.
It should be mentioned that since yesterday, social media has been rife with forecasts of a huge earthquake. Twitter users have been discussing a Dutch researcher’s forecasts of a possible earthquake in Pakistan and India.
Larger seismic activity may occur from 4 to 6 February, most likely up to mid or high 6 magnitude. There is a slight possibility of a larger seismic event around 4 February.https://t.co/75I3PjAarX
— SSGEOS (@ssgeos) February 2, 2023
As the video circulation surfaced, numerous people retweeted it.
One user shared a clip of the video, writing, “Dutch Researcher, who predicted Turkey-Syria earthquake had made similar predictions about Pakistan India and Afghanistan.”
#Earthquake to strike #India soon?
Dutch Researcher, who predicted #Turkey–#Syria earthquake
Had Made Similar Predictions About #Pakistan #India and #Afghanistan .#TurkeyEarthquake | #syriaearthquake#Dutch #Geologicalresearcher#earthquake #earthquakes pic.twitter.com/us87V7lARG— Harish Deshmukh (@DeshmukhHarish9) February 8, 2023
Another user shared the same video with the caption: “Prediction about earthquake in Pakistan. May Allah SWT have mercy on us. Ameen.”
Yet another Twitter user shared a list of other countries that the researcher claimed may face earthquakes and wrote: “He predicted [the] same major earthquake in Iran & Italy. Also said earthquake[s] will happen in Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Indonesia. Surely without attaching a time frame, those earthquakes will occur anytime. He said 5 cities, it’s now 10+.”
Here’s a link from YouTube it’s from 7 months ago https://t.co/SBkjrPGODC The prophecy is around 2:38:37
— Ninsiima (@ninsiimaaa) February 7, 2023
As the news spread, so did the panic with people fretting regarding the measures taken by the government to prepare for the quake.
“There is a prediction of such extent earthquake in Pakistan as well within [the] next 72 hours, what government and SS has planned for that? Have they done anything regarding precautionary measures? P.S: Only Allah knows what’s going to happen but we should be well prepared.”
https://twitter.com/imtesalawan2000/status/1623260470567223296
