‘Rehabilitation Reduced to Rubble’: Cries For Help Echo As Pakistan Dismisses Kabul Hospital Strike Claims as 'Misleading'

New Delhi: After a Pakistani military airstrike struck a drug rehabilitation centre in Afghanistan's Kabul, killing 400 and wounding 250, the ‘blame game’ has intensified between the two nations, which were already engaged in open warfare.

The strike took place late at night and caused massive destruction at the rehabilitation facility. Many of the victims were patients and staff who were present at the centre at the time of the attack, as per news reports.

What Afghanistan says

The latest attack has triggered strong reactions within the country as Deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Hamdullah Fitrat said the death toll from the previous night's bombardment by Pakistan's military on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul has risen to 400, while 250 people were injured.

"The Pakistani military regime carried out an airstrike at approximately 9:00 PM this evening on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, a 2,000-bed facility dedicated to the treatment of drug addiction. As a result of the attack, large sections of the hospital have been destroyed, and there are serious concerns about a high number of casualties. 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," Fitrat wrote on X.

Kabul's claims misleading

Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations terming them as “false and aimed at misleading public opinion”, saying it only targeted military installations in Kabul and the province of Nangahar on Monday.

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” and Afghanistan-based Pakistani fighters in Kabul and Nangarhar. It added that the facilities were being used against innocent Pakistani civilians.

Pakistan’s targeting was “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted”, the ministry said.

What eyewitnesses claim

Amid blame-games, the witnesses who saw these saw the aftermath of the attack stated that the drug rehabilitation hospital was reduced to rubble by the strike, leaving only a blackened, fire-damaged single-story shell. 

Surrounding buildings were transformed into mounds of twisted wood and metal, though a few bunk beds remained standing amidst the debris, as per Reuters report.

The site was strewn with blankets, bedding, and personal belongings, serving as a stark testament to the scale of the devastation.

"When I arrived (last night), I saw that everything was burning, people were burning," ambulance driver Haji Fahim told news agency Reuters. 

"Early in the morning they called me again and told me to come back because there are still bodies under the rubble."

‘It was like doomsday’

Another eyewitness Ahmad, 50, watched flames ​engulf his friends at a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul where he was undergoing treatment, ‌unable to save them as they cried for help after a Pakistani air strike, leaving a scene he said resembled "doomsday".

"The whole place caught fire. It was like doomsday," he said.

‘Very few ​survived the strike’

Another eyewitness Mohammad Mian, who works in the radiology department of the hospital, narrated the harrowing plight stating said many young people under treatment lived in large containers on the campus and very few ​survived the strike.

"It was extremely terrifying," he said. 

"Those who survived were the ones whose rooms were not destroyed ​and were fortunate. But the places where the bombs were dropped, everyone there was killed."

Blackened walls tell different story

Meanwhile, the blackened walls on a single-storey building served as evidence of the fires that had raged inside only hours ago. 

In other places, structures were reduced to piles of brick, metal, and wood, with personal belongings of patients, including pillows, shoes, and items of clothing, left scattered among the debris. 

In Ahmad's ​dormitory, some bunk beds still ​stood intact against a ⁠wall, their bedding undisturbed as the room, with the ceiling thrown off, lay open to the blue sky. 

Dr Ahmad Wali Yousafzai, a health officer at the hospital, ​which he said housed some 2,000 patients at the time of the strike, recalled ​three explosions ⁠whose blasts he said hurled some of his colleagues from one wall to another. \

As fires erupted, there were screams and cries for help "from all directions", he said.

What sparked the clashes?

The day before the February strikes, Pakistani security sources said they had "irrefutable evidence" that militants in Afghanistan were ‌behind a recent ⁠wave of attacks and suicide bombings which targeted Pakistani military and police.

The sources listed seven planned or successful attacks by militants since late 2024 that they said were connected to Afghanistan.

Last month the escalating tensions between the two Islamic neighbours amounted to an "open war". On Feb. 22, Pakistan launched air strikes on militant targets in Afghanistan.

Later that month, Pakistan carried out multiple air strikes on Afghanistan's major cities. 

The air and ground strikes, which hit Taliban military posts, headquarters and ammunition depots in multiple sectors along the border, came after ​Afghanistan launched an attack on Pakistani border forces, officials said. 

Earlier, border clashes between the two countries killed dozens of soldiers in October until negotiations facilitated by Turkey, Qatar and ​Saudi Arabia ended the hostilities and a fragile ceasefire was put in place.

India Hits Out

India on Tuesday strongly slammed Pakistan for its barbaric airstrike on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds and left several injured.

India urged the international community to hold the perpetrators of the criminal act accountable and extended condolences to the bereaved families and said that it stands in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, as per a statement by the Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.

"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", the statement said.

"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", the statement added.

Also Read: 'Only Targeted Military Installations': Over 400 Killed, 250 Wounded In Pakistani Airstrike On Kabul Hospital; Islamabad Rejects Taliban's Claim