The Kaghan Valley is roughly 160 km long, with a population of approximately 300,000 people prior to the quake. Administratively, Kaghan is a sub-district (Tehsil) of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, and is headquartered at Balakot, a town with a pre-quake population of roughly 30,000 people. This was already one of the most underdeveloped regions of Pakistan, with an overwhelming majority of its population barely living at subsistence levels. The earthquake of October 8 made things exponentially worse for these poor people.

Balakot today is a heap of debris, with practically no building left standing or undamaged. Estimates of losses in Balakot and Kaghan stand at 14,000 dead, 300 schools destroyed, 30 hospitals and Basic Health Units (BHUs) leveled, 30,000 houses collapsed or rendered uninhabitable, and 240,000 people left homeless.

The site where Balakot once stood has now been converted into one of the two major hubs for earthquake relief work, the other centre being the town of Muzaffarabad in Pakistani administered Kashmir. Reconstruction work in these destroyed towns and valleys has begun, and is gaining momentum with time.