Afghanistan says at least 400 people are dead in Kabul after Pakistan airstrike : NPR
Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of hitting a hospital in an airstrike that left hundreds dead and hundreds injured. Pakistan says its target was a military installation
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Now we move on to Afghanistan, where officials say a Pakistani airstrike hit a drug rehabilitation center in the capital, killing at least 400 people. Pakistan said its target was a military installation. It was the deadliest attack this year in the worsening conflict between the neighboring nations. Journalist Betsy Joles reports from Islamabad, Pakistan. And a warning: this room contains sounds of explosions.
BETSY JOLES, BYLINE: Buildings burned as corpses were pulled from the ashes after Pakistani airstrikes Monday night in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Pakistan said the strikes targeted Afghan Taliban military sites and what it called the terrorist infrastructure of militant groups it claims support the Taliban government. But the families say the buildings housed a drug treatment center and the people inside were patients. They gathered this morning near the hospital to check if the names of their loved ones were on the list of victims. Shir Mohammad repeatedly called out the name of his brother-in-law, Murad Ali, who is still missing.
SHIR MOHAMMAD: (Non-English language spoken).
JOLES: He says he looked up all the hospitals nearby, listing them. There have been civilian casualties in both countries this month. The U.N. migration agency says tens of thousands of people near their shared border have also fled their homes because of mortar and artillery bombardments.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
(SOUNDBITE OF MORTAR EXPLOSION)
JOLES: This is from a phone video taken moments before a mortar hit the home of Pakistani Dilawar Khan in Landi Kotal, near the border with Afghanistan. Shrapnel injured Khan’s brother, uncle and father.
DILAWAR KHAN: (Non-English language spoken).
JOLES: He says seeing his father like that made him cry. Over the past three weeks, Pakistan has hit Afghanistan hard, claiming to have killed hundreds of Taliban fighters in air and ground attacks. Afghanistan had the highest number of civilian casualties, but also sent drones, mortars and artillery fire across the border.
AFRASIAB KHATTAK: Unfortunately, the ordinary civilian population is the first victim.
JOLES: Afrasiab Khattak is a former Pakistani senator and regional affairs analyst. He says many displaced people have also lost their livelihoods because border closures have disrupted trade.
KHATTAK: This has worsened the humanitarian crisis already plaguing Afghanistan.
JOLES: In just over two years, Pakistan has expelled or pressured more than a million Afghans residing there, also accusing them of being responsible for militant attacks. It’s another source of tension between governments, and the fighting is unlikely to subside anytime soon, said Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies.
MUHAMMAD AMIR RANA: The Pakistani side strongly believes that the time has come to put pressure on the Taliban.
JOLES: Atal Yousafzai, a student at the University of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, has family on both sides of the border. He says the fighting is fueling resentment that won’t go away anytime soon.
ATAL YOUSAFZAI: (Non-English language spoken).
JOLES: “People don’t want this hatred, but it was spread deliberately in their hearts,” he says. With Fazelminallah Qazizai in Kabul, for NPR News, I’m Betsy Joles in Islamabad.
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