This sounds like it might be just another horrible disaster in Iran and perhaps for the Pakistanis living near the border with Iran.  The NYTs reports that nearly 2 million Iranians live near the epicenter of the quake: 

The worst-hit area, along Iran’s southeastern border, is home to nearly 2 million people, who live in three main cities, Zahaedan, the provincial center, and the epicenter of the earthquake between the cities of Saravan and Khash, where roughly 400,000 people live, the semiofficial Tabnak Web site reported.

The semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Iran’s seismology center as saying the earthquake was the worst in 40 years.

The United States Geological Survey reported that the earthquake had a depth of 9.7 miles. Such deep earthquakes are rare and have greater destructive capability.

Iran has often been the epicenter of powerful earthquakes, some of which have taken tens of thousands of lives. In 2003, an 6.6 earthquake near the city of Bam killed at least 26,000 people, and in 1990 at least 30,000 people died in a quake along the Caspian Sea. Last week, a 6.1 quake hit in Bushehr Province, home to Iran’s main nuclear reactor, killing more than 30 people.