It reiterated that pilgrims require a Haj visa and it can be obtained through recognised official channels
A strong earthquake struck Tajikistan on Friday and the tremors were felt as far away as north India and Pakistan, witnesses said. Many residents ran out of their homes, but no major damage was reported.
Also read:
Tajikistan earthquake: Indian authorities assess damage
The US Geological Survey put the quake's magnitude at 5.9 and centred 35 km (55 miles) west of Murghob in Tajikistan, central Asia.
The Tajikistan Emergency Situations Ministry said the epicentre was 420 km (260 miles) east of the Tajik capital Dushanbe near the border with China.
The seismic service of the country's Academy of Sciences told Russia's RIA Novosti that the quake's intensity was measured at 6.1. The news agency said there were no casualties or damage, citing the Committee on Emergency Situations.
Tremors were felt in Dushanbe but the epicentre was in a sparsely populated area.
Cracks were reported in some homes in northern Kashmir, the Indian Meteorological Department said. A witness also reported a wall collapse near the northern Indian city of Amritsar, but there were no reports of casualties.
A resident in Indian Kashmir's Baramulla district said it felt like a strong wind had lashed his house. "My whole house shook and cracks appeared in a corner of one of the rooms," Firdous Ahmad Khan said.
Tremors were felt across Pakistan including the capital, Islamabad, and northwestern Peshawar, and even as far as the eastern city of Lahore, which borders India.
In Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, where a 2005 earthquake wreaked serious destruction, there was panic, according to witnesses, and many people rushed out of their homes in fear.
"I thought it's the same like what had hit us in 2005. My children started crying," said Asif Maqbool, a resident in Madina Market, a neighbourhood of Muzaffarabad that was almost flattened in the 2005 quake.
Saima Khalid, a resident of the Khawaja Muhalla district of Muzaffarabad, said everyone in the neighbourhood came out onto the streets.
"They were crying, reciting verses from the Holy Quran," she said.
The quake was also felt in northern Afghanistan but there were no reports of casualties or damage.
It reiterated that pilgrims require a Haj visa and it can be obtained through recognised official channels
The 18-year-old was taken to hospital in a serious condition
The brothers, who say they are innocent, are accused of having formed an organised criminal network in early 2021 in Romania, as well as in the US and Britain
The left-handed batter scored 3369 runs in 136 one-day internationals and 2893 in 140 Twenty20 internationals — both Pakistan records
Food supplies were distributed to 80 households
On January 31, a heart was airlifted from Delhi to Chennai, paving the way for Ayesha Rashid's life-saving surgery
The online retailer, which is headquartered in Singapore, has said it has around 108 million monthly active users in the 27-nation EU
The baby girl named Rouh, meaning Soul, suffered respiratory problems and a weak immune system, a doctor at the Emirati Hospital in Rafah said