Mass funeral held in Kabul for victims of strike on hospital

Kabul: Bulldozers dug pits in a cemetery in the Afghan capital ahead of a mass funeral Wednesday for some of the victims of what officials have said was a Pakistani airstrike that hit a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul earlier this week.

The strike was the deadliest in an escalating conflict between the two neighbours, now in its third week. Afghan officials have put the death toll at 408 people, with 265 wounded. The toll could not be independently verified.

Pakistan rejects Afghanistan’s accusation that it targeted the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, insisting its strikes in Kabul and eastern Afghanistan Monday had been against military facilities.

It has dismissed Afghan claims of hundreds of casualties as propaganda.

In an interview with The Associated Press in Islamabad Wednesday, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Pakistan had “only targeted terrorist infrastructure.”

“We have just gone after the Afghan Taliban regime, their military setups, their terrorist infrastructure, and all the setups which are supporting or promoting terrorists,” Tarar said.

The conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan, including several in the capital, since it began in late February, despite international calls for a ceasefire.