Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: India on Tuesday severely condemned Pakistan over its airstrike on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul which, the ruling Taliban said, killed more than 400 people and injured over 300 patients on Monday, the media reported.
Calling it a “barbaric massacre” and a cowardly and unconscionable act of violence, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated the targeted facility “can by no means be justified as a military target.”
“Pakistan is now trying to dress up a massacre as a military operation,” it said.
The strike on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul came amid a sharp escalation in the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan across the Durand Line which Kabul refuses to accept as a bilateral border with Islamabad
India’s response came after Pakistan rejected the allegations and claimed it “precisely targeted” military installations and terrorist infrastructure in Kabul. The Shehbaz Sharif government emphasised that secondary detonations after the strike indicated the presence of “large ammunition depots.”
Pakistan has for long been claiming that the Taliban was offering a safe haven to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, and that the terror outfit was behind several suicide attacks in the country.
Calling the strike a “heinous act of aggression,” India said it was a blatant assault on Afghanistan’s sovereignty and risked regional peace and stability.
The Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict, which escalated last month after a fragile ceasefire agreed last year, may potentially further destabilise the region already grappling with the fallout from the ongoing US-Israel war against Iran.
“It reflects Pakistan’s persistent pattern of reckless behaviour and its repeated attempts to externalise internal failures through increasingly desperate acts of violence beyond its borders,” the MEA said.
India also highlighted the timing of the strike, noting that it came during the holy month of Ramadan. “There is no faith, no law, and no morality that can justify the deliberate targeting of a hospital and its patients,” the statement said.
Visuals on social media showed massive flames engulfing a single-storey building, with bedding and blankets strewn around. Rescue workers rushed to take out bodies on stretchers.
According to a BBC report, some 2,000 people were being treated at the hospital in Kabul when it was targeted. The Afghan health ministry’s spokesperson said there were no military facilities near the hospital.
People felt like three bombs exploded consecutively. “The whole place caught fire. It was like doomsday,” said Ahmad, a survivor. “My friends were burning in the fire, and we could not save them all.”
The area struck by Pakistan was formerly a US military base and used to be known as a notorious hangout for drug addicts. After the Taliban took over in August 2021, following the withdrawal of troops by the US, they turned it into a drug rehabilitation centre.