Afghanistan’s Taliban government has claimed that at least 400 people have been killed and 250 others were injured in Pakistan’s airstrikes on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul. according to reports.
After multiple explosions were heard in Afghanistan’s Kabul City and surrounding areas on Monday night, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid accused the Pakistani military of violating Afghan airspace and targeting a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, resulting in the deaths of addicts undergoing treatment.
“We condemn this crime in the strongest terms and consider such an act to be in violation of all universally recognised humanitarian principles,” he added.
Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson of the Taliban government, said the death toll in the Pakistani attack had risen to 400, while the number of injured has reached 250, TOLO News reported. Local television stations posted footage showing firefighters struggling to extinguish flames among the ruins of a building.
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Pakistan Denies Targeting Civilian Sites
Meanwhile, Pakistan said it had carried out precision strikes on “military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” in Kabul but denied Afghan claims that strikes hit a drug treatment centre, killing civilians. It said the military targeted locations in Kabul and the Afghan border province of Nangarhar.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information claimed that reports of the hospital attack were “false and misleading” that were aimed at covering up “illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism.”
The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights for Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has expressed concern over civilian casualties in the attack on the hospital. The International Human Rights Foundation has also condemned the attack, saying that public places such as hospitals should not be targeted.
The situation in Kabul has been tense as residents report continued aircraft activity over the city. The Pakistani military has struck Kabul several times in recent weeks, as part of a conflict sparked by claims that the Taliban government has harboured militant groups that have carried out attacks across the border.
The attack came hours after Afghan officials said the two sides had exchanged fire along their common border, killing four people in Afghanistan, as the deadliest conflict between the two former allies entered a third week.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan of allowing militant groups — especially the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — to operate from Afghan territory and launch attacks in Pakistan. Kabul, on the other hand, has constantly denied the allegations. Earlier this week, Pakistan carried out a series of airstrikes across multiple Afghan locations, targeting what it said were militant positions.
