Families Search for Loved Ones After Deadly Pakistan Attack on Kabul Resettlement | Conflict news

Afghan officials say Pakistani attacks have killed hundreds of civilians; Islamabad rejects the statement as ‘false’.

Families gather outside a drug treatment center in the Afghan capital, Kabul, as Taliban officials search for their loved ones after a Pakistani airstrike killed 408 people.

The attack on the Omar Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul took place at around 9 a.m. local time (16:30 GMT) on Monday.

Baryalai Amiri, a 38-year-old mechanic, was at the 2,000-bed facility on Tuesday to look for his brother, who had been admitted nearly 25 days ago.

“We were not given the right information,” Amiri told the AFP news agency, as rescuers picked through nearby debris. “Until now, we don’t know where he is.”

Afghanistan and Pakistan have been at odds for months, with Islamabad accusing its neighbor of harboring armed groups that have carried out deadly cross-border attacks.

The latest round of violence, which began last month, came two days before the world’s attention shifted sharply to the US-Israeli war over Iran, the worst ever between the neighbors.

The two nations share a 2,600km (1,600-mile) border. The conflict has subsided amid efforts by friendly nations, including China, to intervene and end the fighting before it flares up again.

Pakistan denied Afghan claims that its latest attack targeted civilians, insisting instead that it carried out precision strikes on “military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”.

“Pakistan’s targeting is precise and carried out carefully to avoid any collateral damage,” the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said. Islamabad dismissed the statement as “false and aimed at misleading public opinion”.

Health officials said the clinic had about 3,000 patients from across Afghanistan at the time of the attack, which sparked panic in Kabul after residents broke their daily Ramadan fast.

Richard Bennett, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, said he was “alarmed” by reports of airstrikes and civilian casualties.

“I urge parties to exercise maximum restraint and respect international law, to escalate international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals,” he posted on X.

‘It was like doomsday’

A spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Tuesday that 408 people were killed and 265 wounded in the attack.

Eyewitnesses said that the people in the hospital were finishing their evening prayers when three explosions were heard. Two bombs hit rooms and patient areas, he said.

“The whole place was on fire. It was like a cataclysm,” Ahmed, 50, told Reuters news agency.

“My friends were burning in the fire, and we couldn’t save them all,” he said, giving only his first name because he was being treated at the facility.

Ambulance driver Haji Fahim told Reuters he arrived at the scene after the airstrike.

“When I came (last night), I saw everything burning, people burning,” Fahim said on Tuesday. “In the morning, they called me again and told me to come back because the bodies were still under the rubble.”

According to local media reports, the clinic was established in 2016 and has treated hundreds of people and also provides them with vocational training such as tailoring and carpentry.