Afghanistan has accused Pakistan’s military of launching an airstrike on a hospital where thousands of drug users were being treated, which has killed at least 400 people.
The bombing of the hospital in Kabul on Monday was dismissed by Pakistan as “false and aimed at misleading public opinion,” claiming that the Pakistani military had targeted a military installation in Kabul and the province of Nangarhar instead.
The attack took place on Kabul’s Omar Addiction Treatment Hospital at around 9pm local time, according to Hamdullah Firat, the deputy spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA).
The hospital is a 2,000-bed facility where drug users are housed, of which large sections of the building were destroyed, according to Firat in a statement on X.
“Unfortunately, the death toll has so far reached 400, while around 250 others have been reported injured. Rescue teams are currently at the scene, working to control the fire and recover the remaining bodies of the victims,” he added.
Eye witness accounts
Omid Stanikzai, 31, a security guard who was working at the hospital at the time of the attack, said he had heard jets flying in the sky above the hospital before the attack.
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“There were military units all around us. When these military units fired on the jet, the jet dropped bombs and a fire broke out,” he said.
According to Stanikzai, all those killed and injured in the attack were civilians.
An ambulance driver who had responded to the scene, Haji Fahim, said he had arrived at the hospital and saw that “everything was burning, people were burning”.
“Early in the morning they called me again and told me to come back because there are still bodies under the rubble,” he told Reuters.
“We were inside the wards when the explosion happened,” said Yousaf Rahim, a patient.
“My bed was in the corner, and I suffered injuries to my leg and thigh. It was a horrific scene. Patients fell from their beds, screaming and running as fire and smoke filled the wards and rooms.
“Thick smoke and dust spread throughout the hospital. Many people lay on the ground. Dozens died instantly, and the critically injured were pleading for help. I didn’t know what to do. I stepped over bodies and managed to escape outside,” he said.
‘A crime against humanity’
The attack came shortly after officials of the IEA said they had been engaged in fighting along the Durand Line, Afghanistan and Pakistan’s shared border.
The fighting had killed four in Afghanistan, IEA officials claim, as the most recent war between the neighbours has marked the most deadly confrontation in years.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have now been engaged in conflict for the third consecutive week.
A spokesperson for the government of the IEA, Zabihullah Mujahid, strongly condemned the attack, saying in a statement on X that Pakistan had “violated Afghanistan’s airspace and targeted a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul”.
He labelled the attack as a “crime against humanity.”
Pakistan dismisses attack
Pakistan has reacted to the attack, claiming that it was not behind the bombing.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations as false, claiming that there was no hospital targeted in Kabul.
Instead, Pakistan claims it targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure.
In a post on X, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said the strikes had “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure, including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban.”
The post added that the strikes were conducted on Kabul and Nangarhar, adding that the facilities targeted were being used to harm innocent Pakistani civilians.
According to the ministry, Pakistan’s airstrike was “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted,” the ministry said.
Pakistan went on to further claim that Mujahid’s claim was aimed at demonising Pakistan and worsening the “anti-Pakistan” sentiment so that the Afghan government could continue its “illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism”.
Islamabad has described the situation with Afghanistan as “open-war”, with the most recent bout of fighting beginning in late February.
The armed clashes disrupted a previously instated ceasefire which had been brokered by Qatar in October.
The conflict thus far has displaced over 20,000 people, marking the worst altercation between the neighbours in years.
