In early October 2005 an earthquake registering a magnitude of 7.6 rocked the Kashmir region of Northern Pakistan. This area is a tectonic boundary formed by the Eurasian plate to the north and the India-Australia plate to the south, and was said to be a region where a major earthquake could occur from the collision of the energy accumulated over the years. The 2001 earthquake in India's western region of Gujarat was triggered by much the same geological conditions. But the impoverished people continued to live in fragile homes, and earthquake counter measures were not put into place. This most recent big earthquake took the lives of approximately 80,000 people in the four regions of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, the five regions near the Northwest border, Indian-controlled Kashmir, and part of Afghanistan. Some of the areas hit by the disaster are so mountainous it is difficult for people or aid to reach. As emergency support operations begin to slowly wind down, a three-part report on the day-to-day lives of the victims since the earthquake was filed. Pakistan Population: ca 149mn Territory: approx. 796,000km² Capital: Islamabad Ethnic Groups: Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun (Pathan), Baloch Languages: Urdu Religion: Islam