Pakistan has been rocked by three earthquakes in as many days, triggering not just tremors on the ground but waves of speculation online and across strategic circles. The seismic activity, centred primarily in the northern and western regions of the country, comes at a time of heightened tension between Islamabad and New Delhi following the Pahalgam terror attack and India’s subsequent military response.
The country was hit by a 4.6 magnitude earthquake on Monday. Earlier, it experienced two back-to-back earthquakes on May 10 – one 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the morning followed by a 4.0 magnitude temblor later.
While geologists and meteorological experts have pointed to tectonic movement in the seismically active Himalayan region as the cause — a common phenomenon in this zone — the coincidence of repeated quakes and recent military escalations has fuelled a swirl of unverified theories, particularly on social media.
“Based on geolocation, Above video of strike on Pakistan nuclear weapons storage facility in Kirana hills is accurate. Tunnel entrance was struck in a precise hit & Impact of Blast caused Earthquake registered on 4.0 Richter scale,” a user wrote on May 12.
“4 quakes in 13 days. Pakistan shook on Apr 30, May 5, 10 & 12. Natural tremors — or signs of underground nuclear tests or military activity? Epicenters raise questions all are around same coordinate. The ground isn’t the only thing rumbling,” wrote another user.
"This is not natural Earthquake but possibly Nuclear site event in #Pakistani Nuclear sites? #OperationSindoor," another social media user said on X.
Some observers have also floated the possibility that the tremors might be linked to covert nuclear testing. The logic, they argue, is rooted in history: Pakistan has conducted underground nuclear tests before — most notably in 1998 in the Chagai Hills — and such tests often result in seismic activity detectable on earthquake sensors.
O P Mishra, Director of the National Center for Seismology, dismissed the claims about possible nuclear tests conducted by Pakistan.
"Nuclear explosions have a distinct signature. A natural earthquake has two phases, while nuclear explosion has a distinct tertiary phase. This is due to reverberation of the surface following a nuclear explosion. Seismographs can detect this distinctly," Mishra told PTI.
Veteran seismologist A K Shukla said that the nuclear explosions are recorded differently on seismographs.
"The previous earthquakes have been reported from different locations and it was not possible to have nuclear facilities spread across different regions," Shukla said.
Pakistan lies along the active boundary between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates and provinces such as Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Gilgit-Baltistan are prone to frequent earthquakes.
Still, the timing has raised eyebrows. Some see the possibility of nuclear signaling — a way for Pakistan to assert deterrence without overt escalation — while others suggest these are mere coincidences being overinterpreted in a climate of fear and hostility.
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