Why did the Kashmir earthquake occur?

Earthquakes occur regularly in the Kashmir region near India and Pakistan because the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates continue to collide. The boundary between these two plates is under tremendous stress, and earthquakes occur when the plates slip or move.

As of January 2015, the most recent destructive earthquake in the Kashmir region occurred on Oct. 8, 2005. A 7.6 magnitude quake struck at 8:50 a.m. local time. It killed approximately 75,000 to 100,000 people and injured another 100,000 to 138,000, displacing roughly 3.5 million to 4 million people. More than 32,000 buildings collapsed in what is, as of 2015, still one of the deadliest earthquakes to ever strike the region.