Kabul, Afghanistan — Bulldozers dug holes in a cemetery in the Afghan capital on Wednesday ahead of a mass funeral for some of the victims of what officials said was a Pakistani airstrike. Attack on a drug rehabilitation hospital In Kabul earlier this week.
The strike was the deadliest in the escalating conflict between the two neighbours, which is now in its third week. Afghan officials put the death toll at 408, while 265 were injured. The toll could not be independently confirmed.
Pakistan rejected Afghanistan’s accusation that it targeted the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, insisting that its strikes in Kabul and eastern Afghanistan on Monday were against military facilities. It has dismissed Afghan claims of hundreds of casualties as propaganda.
In an interview with The Associated Press in Islamabad on Wednesday, Pakistan’s Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said Pakistan had “only targeted terrorist infrastructure.”
“We have gone after the Afghan Taliban regime, their military establishment, their terrorist infrastructure and all those systems that are supporting or propagating terrorists,” Tarar said.
conflict between afghanistan and pakistan have seen again and again Despite international calls for a ceasefire, there have been cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan since they began in late February, including several in the capital.
Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of providing safe haven to terrorists who mainly carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Pakistani Taliban. The group is separate but closely linked to the Afghan Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US-led troops. Kabul denied the allegation.
On Wednesday, a light rain fell as ambulances lined up outside the cemetery and began unloading simple wooden coffins. The mass funeral was for victims who were from Kabul province and whose bodies had already been identified. Officials said victims from elsewhere in Afghanistan would be taken to their home provinces for burial.
The 2,000-bed Omid hospital was attacked at around 9 pm on Monday night. It was renamed about a year ago and expanded in size from a pre-existing treatment facility as part of the Taliban government’s efforts to eliminate a significant drug addiction problem in the country.
Afghanistan’s vast poppy fields have been the source of most of the world’s heroin, and combined with decades of conflict and widespread poverty, this has fueled drug addiction, which the country’s current rulers have vowed to fight.
The site, near Kabul’s international airport, is adjacent to Camp Phoenix, a former NATO military base where US forces trained Afghan National Army. It was not immediately clear what was now housed at the site. The strike caused massive blazes at hospitals, with local television footage showing rescue teams searching debris with flashlights late Monday night as firefighters struggled to extinguish the blaze.
Tarar said Pakistan’s strikes “have been very accurate and these strikes were carried out on an ammunition depot in Kabul. After which, we saw smoke and flames in the atmosphere in Kabul.”
He said there was subsequent loss of life and property, which he did not quantify, “because there was ammunition in that depot, there was technical equipment, there was weapons.”
bodies were still being taken out Smoldering remains of hospital Tuesday morning.
Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid Condemning the attack, it accused Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to spread terror”. He said those killed were “innocent civilians and drug addicts.”
The most serious fighting between the two neighbors began in late February when Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani air strikes. skirmishes Interrupted the ceasefire brokered by Qatar In October, dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants were killed in earlier fighting.
Pakistan has declared that it is in “Open War” With Afghanistan last month. The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as it is a region where terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda, are active. Islamic State groupStill present and trying to re-emerge.
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Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Elena Bekatoros contributed from Athens, Greece
