The 2001 7.6 earthquake which struck the Kutch region in the western part of India was one of the largest intraplate earthquakes to have struck the Indian subcontinent. There was extensive destruction of unreinforced brick masonry (URM) buildings in the region. Assessing the vulnerability of the masonry structures of this region is complicated due to a lack of accelerograms and realistic models for the cyclic response of masonry. In this paper, synthetic accelerograms for the region are generated using the modified stochastic finite-fault method. The monotonic backbone curve is developed using a mechanics-based approach. Stress-based criteria are used to identify the displacement limit states. Experimental data of two URM shear walls are used to calibrate hysteretic models for performing nonlinear time-history analyses. Damage predictions show good comparison with the earthquake reconnaissance reports on URM damage. Seismic fragility curves indicate the high vulnerability of URM structures under the expected range of seismic intensities for the region. © 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.