Islamabad: Pakistan overnight carried out “precision airstrikes” targeting what it described as terrorists and their support infrastructure locations across Afghanistan, but the Afghan government accused Islamabad of bombing a rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, killing at least 400 people.
The latest strikes came as Operation Ghazab lil Haq, launched on February 26, continued, according to Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Pakistan launched the operation in response to alleged attacks by the Afghan Taliban forces along the 2,600-km-long border.
“Pakistan’s Armed Forces successfully carried out precision airstrikes on the night of 16 March as a part of Operation Ghazab Lil Haq, targeting Afghan Taliban regime terrorism sponsoring military installations in Kabul and Nangarhar,” Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X.
He claimed that the technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities at two locations in Kabul were effectively destroyed.
“The visible secondary detonations after the strikes clearly indicate the presence of large ammunition depots,” he added.
He claimed four Afghan Taliban regime “terrorism sponsoring” military sites were also struck in Nangarhar, destroying associated logistics, ammunition and technical infrastructure.
However, Deputy Spokesman of the Afghan Taliban-led government, Hamdullah Fitrat, said that Monday night’s bombardment by Pakistan targeted a drug rehabilitation centre in the Afghan capital, resulting in the death of at least 400 people. He said 250 others were injured.
In a post on X, Fitrat said the strike destroyed large sections of the hospital and rescue teams were trying to recover the bodies from the rubble.
Citing health officials at the hospital, TOLOnews Tuesday reported that more than 50 bodies are still believed to be trapped under the debris as rescue operations continue.
The airstrike destroyed five blocks of the rehabilitation compound, where up to 3,000 patients were receiving treatment, it said.
Deputy Interior Minister Muhammad Nabi Omari, who visited the site, said that Pakistan “has undertaken a project to kill Afghans.”
Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Afghan government, said his country will respond forcefully to Pakistan’s aggression.
Tarar, however, claimed that Pakistan “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”, including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban and Fitna al-Khawarij in Kabul and Nangarhar that were being used against innocent Pakistani civilians.
Fitna al-Khawarij is a term the state uses to refer to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
“False claims made by the propagandists of the Taliban regime cannot fool the Afghans and the World from their heinous actions supporting and sponsoring terrorism in the region,” he said.