A leading seismologist has said that Kashmir could face more deadly earthquakes of far greater magnitude in the next 50 years, compared to the recent quake that killed more than 73000 people in PoK and around 1500 in Jammu and Kashmir.

Roger Bilham who has been working in quake-affected areas of Pakistan for the past two months, said that a huge amount of energy was stored in the faultline in the Kashmir region, but it was unevenly distributed, and this had the possibility of triggering massive earthquakes.

The government needs to ensure that whatever new structures are built are able to withstand the next earthquake, the next one and the next one. From what we know of Kashmir’s history, there may well be a sequence of earthquakes spread over the next 50 years. Of course 50 years may sound an awfully long time to a politician but it is the perfect length of time to get the structure of the buildings righ.