Afghanistan-Pakistan War Highlights: ‘Heinous act during Ramzan’ India condemns Pak strike on Kabul hospital

According to a report citing security sources, the Pakistani army destroyed an Afghan Taliban post in the Torkham sector.

India on Tuesday condemned the airstrikes in Kabul, which killed over 400 people, and said that the international community must hold the perpetrators of the criminal act accountable and ensure that Pakistan's "wanton targeting" of civilians in Afghanistan ceases without delay.

Rescuers in Afghanistan recovered more bodies from the rubble of a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul on Tuesday after an overnight airstrike killed more than 400 people, according to officials.

Former Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Amar Sinha, on Tuesday said that the recent airstrikes targeting civilians in Kabul are a significant escalation in tensions, Financial Express reported.

He added that targeting a medical facility and killing civilians undergoing treatment cannot be defended on any military grounds.

“This is a major escalation by Pakistan. Hitting a hospital and causing the death of hundreds of civilians under treatment is a war crime,” Sinha said.

The European Union on Tuesday called for "maximum restraint" from both Afghanistan and Pakistan after a strike on a Kabul drug rehabilitation centre that Afghan authorities said left hundreds dead.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has expressed condolences to the families of victims following an airstrike by Pakistan’s military regime on a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul, TOLOnews reported.

Abdulrab Rasul Sayyaf, former Member of the House of the People of Afghanistan on Tuesday (local time), condemned the airstrike on drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, calling it an act against the Afghan people rather than the current government.

A day after Pakistan attacked a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, Lin Jian, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, expressed concern over Pakistan’s military regime attacking Afghanistan, TOLOnews reported.

Calling for dialogue, he said that negotiation is the only effective way to resolve disputes, urging both sides to agree to a ceasefire immediately.

The United Nations on Tuesday (local time) called for a swift and independent investigation after the Afghan government said a Pakistani strike on a Kabul drug rehabilitation clinic killed hundreds.

"Last night's tragic blast at a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, that reportedly left scores of patients dead, must be investigated promptly, independently and transparently, and those responsible held to account in line with international standards," UN rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.

Pakistan's Information Minister, Attaullah Tarar, rejected the Taliban's claim that the Pakistani military targeted a drug rehab facility in Kabul, calling the claims“entirely baseless.”

In a post on X, Tarar wrote that Pakistan conducted 6 “precise, deliberate, and professional” strikes on Monday in Kabul and the eastern border province of Nangarhar as part of Islamabad's "ongoing war against terrorism" to stop militant attacks inside Pakistan.

"No hospital, no drug rehabilitation centre, and no civilian facility was targeted. The targets were military and terrorist infrastructure, including ammunition and technical equipment storage sites and other installations linked to hostile activity against Pakistan," he added.

According to TOLO News, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), called for de-escalation in the region. Tedros said the agency is working to verify whether the reports of an airstrike on a drug rehabilitation facility in Afghanistan are true or not.

Tedros warned that escalating hostilities are straining the country's fragile health system and endangering vulnerable populations.

India has slammed Pakistan for its “cowardly” attack on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul

According to a Geo News report, citing security sources, Pakistan's armed forces are continuing effective and targeted operations against Fitna al-Khawarij and the Afghan Taliban regime under "Operation Ghazab lil-Haq. The report added that they are targeting posts in the Khyber sector.

According to an NDTV report, a survivor in Kabul recalled the incident. Ahmad, 50, described the devastation as resembling a “doomsday” scene.

The survivor, who worked as a volunteer guard at the facility and shared only his first name, said he had been in a dormitory with 25 others following prayers when the strike hit. He said he was the sole person to make it out alive. “The entire place was engulfed in flames; it felt like the end of the world,” he said.

Afghanistan's Taliban has termed the Kabul airstrikes as a “crime against humanity," after more than 400 people were killed and 260 injured.

Pakistan targeted a drug rehab facility in Kabul on Monday (local time), a move that raises the risk of major escalation.

Pakistan's economy is likely to face an additional strain as it shares a border with Iran, which is involved in a war with the US and Israel. Islamabad faces a risk of broader regional instability. Amid the ongoing conflict with Afghanistan and energy concerns tied to the Iran war, as oil prices surge, returns on Pakistan dollar bonds have been wiped out this year. The debt is now on track to deliver losses of more than 5% since the conflict began in late February. The benchmark KSE-100 Index has fallen about 11% over the period.

Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesperson, on Tuesday (local time) said that there will be “no more diplomacy or talks" with Pakistan, adding that Taliban would now seek retaliation.

Mujahid noted that the country's government would now avenge those killed in the strikes. He also warned that continued attacks will have consequences.

On Monday (local time), an air strike by Pakistan that the Afghanistan government said has killed hundreds of civilians is the latest escalation in the conflict between the South Asian neighbours.

Afghanistan's Taliban government said that the Pakistani air strike targeted a drug rehabilitation hospital in the country's capital city, Kabul. At least 408 people have reportedly died, and another 265 have been injured.

Pakistan on Tuesday questioned the Afghan authorities' version of events and said its target -- "a location storing military and terrorist weapons and equipment" -- was "several kilometres away" from the clinic.

The two sides have been in conflict for months, with Islamabad accusing its neighbour of harbouring Islamist extremists who have mounted deadly cross-border attacks on its territory.

Afghan rescue workers are still digging bodies out of the rubble of a drug rehabilitation hospital in the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday morning.

Afghan officials said an overnight Pakistani airstrike killed hundreds at the facility.

China called for "calm and restraint" between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday, after an air strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul killed at least 400 people.

Afghanistan accused Pakistan on Tuesday of hitting a treatment centre for drug addicts in its capital, though Islamabad denied deliberately targeting civilians.

The Afghan health ministry said that about 400 people were killed and more than 200 wounded, but that the toll was not final as rescue operations are ongoing.

Afghanistan cricket team player Mohammad Nabi has expressed concern over Pakistan’s attack on Kabul last night.

According to Tolo News, Nabi said: “Mothers waited at the gates, calling their sons’ names. On the 28th night of Ramadan, their lives were cut short.”

Afghanistan cricketer Wafadar Momand condemned the Pakistani strikes in a social media post. He wrote that a hospital is a place meant to save human lives, and blood should not be shed there.

He added that attacking such a place is a major crime against humanity, ethics, and all human values.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has declared that there was “no more diplomacy or talks" with Pakistan and that the Taliban would instead seek retaliation.

Mujahid said Taliban would avenge those killed in the strikes and warned that continued attacks would have consequence

Pakistani forces targeted the Afghan Taliban's military installations at four spots in the Afghan province of Nangarhar. According to Islamabad, logistics, ammunition and technical infrastructure adjacent to these installations were also destroyed.

Sources familiar with the matter suggested that a drone assembly workshop, "headquarters from where drones were sent," and weapon stocks were also destroyed in Nangarhar and Kabul, PTI reported.

Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Monday released data linked with Operation Ghazab lil Haq, according to which 684 Afghan Taliban operatives were killed so far and another 912 were injured.

According to him, 252 posts had been destroyed and 44 others captured. He further noted that 229 tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery guns of Taliban regime had been destroyed.

Furthermore, Pakistan claimed to have successfully attacked 73 terrorists and their support infrastructure locations across Afghanistan by air.

Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday condemned Pakistan's airstrike on Kabul hospital. In a statement it said, “Afghanistan's India unequivocally condemns Pakistan's barbaric airstrike on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul on the night of March 16. This is a cowardly and unconscionable act of violence that has claimed the lives of a large number of civilians in a facility which can by no means be justified as a military target. Pakistan is now trying to dress up a massacre as a military operation.”

It added, “This heinous act of aggression by Pakistan is also a blatant assault on Afghanistan’s sovereignty and a direct threat to regional peace and stability. 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. That this attack was carried out during the holy month of Ramzan, a time of peace, reflection, and mercy among Muslim communities across the world, makes it all the more reprehensible. There is no faith, no law, and no morality that can justify the deliberate targeting of a hospital and its patients.”

Atlantic Council international affairs think-tank's Michael Kugelman, South Asia expert said, "The Arab Gulf nations that mediated previous rounds of Afghanistan-Pakistan talks are now bogged down by their own war. Other mediators, including China, have had limited success," AFP reported.

He added, "Pakistan appears intent to keep hitting targets in Afghanistan, and the Taliban determined to retaliate with operations on Pakistani border posts and potentially with asymmetric tactics -- from launching drones to sponsoring militant attacks in wider Pakistan.

UN Special Rapporteur, Richard Bennett, expressed deep concern over the reports of airstrikes in Kabul and underlined the need to protect civilians and civilian infra such as hospitals.

In a post on X he said, "Dismayed by fresh reports of #Pakistan airstrikes in #Afghanistan and resulting civilian casualties. My condolences. I urge parties to de-escalate, exercise maximum restraint & respect international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals".

Following the news of Kabul hospital strike, Embassy of Iran in Afghanistan issued a statement on X, “Ali Larijani's message to the Muslims of the world and Islamic governments: Think about the future of the Islamic world. You know that America has no loyalty to you and Israel is your enemy. Iran wishes you well and has no intention of dominating you.”

Plumes of smoke engulfed Kabul's drug rehabilitation hospital on March 17, as firefighters made efforts to douse the blaze.

India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish called out Pakistan for its habit of "fabricating imaginative" tales of Islamophobia in neighbouring countries as he questioned Islamabad's brutal repression of Ahmadiyyas and air-bombing campaigns during Ramadan.

“India's western neighbour is an excellent example of fabricating imaginative tales of Islamophobia in their neighbourhood,” Parvathaneni Harish said.

Pakistan accused Afghanistan's Taliban government of misreporting of facts. Pakistani Information and Broadcasting Ministry said in a post on X said, "This misreporting of facts as drug rehabilitation facility seeks to stir sentiments, covering illegitimate support to cross-border terrorism."

Pakistan's response over Kabul hospital strike came hours after the United Nations Security Council called on Afghanistan’s Taliban government to immediately step up efforts to combat terrorism, Al Jazeera reported.

Afghan government spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, condemned the hospital strike on X and said that Pakistan has once again “violated Afghanistan’s airspace and targeted a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul”. Kabul hospital strike is "against all accepted principles, and a crime against humanity”, he said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations around Kabul hospital attack as baseless as he said that no hospital was targeted in Kabul.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information in a post on X said the strikes targeted Afghanistan-based Pakistani fighters in Kabul and Nangarhar. The air strikes “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure, including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban," he added.