India on Tuesday strongly condemned what it said was Pakistan’s “barbaric airstrike” on a drug rehabilitation centre in the Afghan capital of Kabul, which killed about 400 people, and accused Islamabad of passing off a “massacre as a military operation”. Smoke rises following what the Afghan Taliban government says is an air strike by Pakistan on a drug users rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan (via REUTERS)
The Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul, a 2,000-bed facility, was hit by Pakistani combat jets at 9 pm local time on Monday. Another 250 people were injured in the airstrike, which destroyed large sections of the building.
India “unequivocally condemns Pakistan’s barbaric airstrike on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital” , and the “cowardly and unconscionable act of violence” claimed the lives of a large number of civilians in a facility that cannot be justified as a military target, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
“Pakistan is now trying to dress up a massacre as a military operation,” he said. “This heinous act of aggression by Pakistan is also a blatant assault on Afghanistan’s sovereignty and a direct threat to regional peace and stability.”
The international community “must hold the perpetrators of this criminal act accountable and ensure that the wanton targeting by Pakistan of civilians in Afghanistan ceases without delay”, Jaiswal said.
India has backed the Afghan Taliban regime during Afghanistan’s ongoing clashes with Pakistan over the past few weeks. The latest round of violence began last month after Pakistan accused the Afghan Taliban of supporting the Pakistani Taliban and other terror groups responsible for cross-border attacks.