Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Monday accused Pakistan’s military of attacking a Kabul hospital treating drug addicts in airstrikes that killed four people and wounded several others. Pakistan dismissed the charge and said the strikes, which were also carried out in eastern Afghanistan, did not hit any civilian sites.
The alleged attack came hours after Afghan officials said the two sides exchanged gunfire along their common border, killing four people in Afghanistan, as the deadliest fighting between neighbors in years entered its third week.
Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack on X and said it violated Afghanistan’s territory. He said most of the dead and injured were addicts receiving treatment at the center.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman Mosharraf Zaidi dismissed the allegations as baseless and said no hospitals were attacked in Kabul.
In a post on
One of your browser extensions appears to be blocking the video player from loading. To view this content, you may need to disable it on this site.
He said Pakistan’s attack was “precise and carefully carried out to ensure no collateral damage was inflicted.” The ministry said Mujahid’s claim was “false and misleading” and aimed to stir up sentiment and cover up what it described as “illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism”.
It came hours after the UN Security Council called on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to immediately step up efforts to combat terrorism. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harboring militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, which it claims carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
The Security Council resolution, adopted unanimously, does not name Pakistan but condemns “in the strongest terms all terrorist activities, including terrorist attacks.” The resolution also extends the UN political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for three months.
The Pakistani government often accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, as well as illegal Baloch separatist groups and other militants who frequently attack Pakistani security forces and civilians across the country. Kabul denies the accusation.
Earlier, Afghan officials said four people, including two children, were killed and 10 other people in southeastern Afghanistan were wounded in Monday’s exchange of fire. Mortar shells fired from Pakistan overnight hit villages in Khost province and destroyed several houses, said Mustaghfar Gurbaz, spokesman for the provincial governor.
Read more‘Open war’ between Pakistan and Afghanistan: how and why we got here
On Sunday, Pakistan said a mortar fired from Afghanistan hit a house in the northwestern district of Bajaur, killing four members of a family and wounding two others, including a five-year-old boy. Residents and officials said the military on Monday attacked Afghan positions along the border, where Sunday’s attack originated.
There was no immediate comment from Pakistan, which has repeatedly said its military only attacks Afghan outposts and militant hideouts.
Islamabad has described the situation as an “open war.” Cross-border clashes have included multiple Pakistani airstrikes against Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Afghanistan’s Taliban administration crossed a “red line” by deploying drones that injured several civilians in Pakistan last week.
In response to those attacks, Pakistan’s air force over the weekend attacked equipment storage sites and “technical support infrastructure” in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, saying they were being used for attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul said Pakistan attacked two locations, including an empty security site and a drug rehabilitation center that suffered minor damage.
Read morePakistani airstrikes hit Kabul and Afghan border provinces, killing several people.
In Kabul, Afghanistan’s deputy administrative prime minister, Abdul Salam Hanafi, said overnight that defending sovereignty is the duty of all citizens. During a meeting with political analysts and media figures, Hanafi lamented the civilian casualties in recent Pakistani attacks and said the war was imposed on Afghanistan.
The fighting began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan that Kabul said killed civilians. The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October after earlier fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Sunday that the military has killed 684 members of the Afghan Taliban forces, a claim rejected by Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, which says the casualties are much lower. Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry and other officials have said Afghanistan has killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
