The villages I have visited were completely destroyed, states Matiulla Shahab, freelance journalist working with human rights, for BBC.
Matiulla Shahab lives in the affected province of Kunar and woke up to the quake on Monday night. As soon as it got light, he drove towards the remote mountain villages to help. But the roads were blocked by stones and rubble and he was forced to walk for hours to reach the communities. Once there, he helped dig graves and could see that many people were in shock after the earthquake.
People's faces are covered in dust and there is silence. They were like robots, no one could talk about it.
On Tuesday, the death toll was set at over 1,400 by the country's Taliban-controlled authorities. Over 3,000 injured have been registered, reports AFP.
The injured are being evacuated, so that number can change significantly, states a spokesperson for the country's disaster authority to AP and adds that search and rescue efforts are ongoing in the affected areas.
The relatively shallow quake (eight kilometers) had a magnitude of 6.0 and its center was 27 kilometers from the country's fifth largest city Jalalabad. The earthquake was followed by several aftershocks.
The region is located near the mountainous border with Pakistan. Buildings are reported to have shaken both in Afghanistan's capital Kabul and Pakistan's capital Islamabad.
