KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has expressed his heartfelt condolences and sympathies to President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and to the governments and peoples of both the countries as well as to the members of affected families from Monday’s powerful earthquake that hit northeastern Afghanistan.

In his separate letters to Afghan President Ghani and Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif on Monday, PM Oli, on behalf of the government and people of Nepal as well as on his own, said that he was deeply shocked to learn of the powerful earthquake with its epicenter in northeastern Afghanistan.

PM Oli has said that he stands by the governments and peoples of both the countries at this time of great difficulty as the close neighbours and fellow SAARC member states.

A magnitude-7.5 quake rattled the northeastern Afghanistan on Monday, resulting in loss of lives and massive physical destructions in Afghanistan and Pakistan.