Pakistan has announced a five-day pause in strikes against neighbouring Afghanistan, as a mass funeral was held for some of the hundreds of victims killed in Monday’s attack on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul.
The Afghan Taliban government has said more than 400 people were killed in and 265 others wounded in that attack, which took place as people and staff at the centre were praying days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Pakistan denies it deliberately targeted the drug rehabilitation centre, saying it had “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”. It accuses Kabul of harbouring extremist groups that have carried out cross-border attacks on its territory.
Late on Wednesday, Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said on social media that the country would temporarily pause its military operations against Afghanistan from midnight until midnight Monday.
The pause, to mark the end of Ramadan, was at the request of “brotherly Islamic countries” Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, he said.
But Tarar added that if any “cross-border attack, drone attack or any terrorist incident” occurred inside Pakistan, its military operations against Afghanistan would “immediately resume with renewed intensity”.
The Afghan Taliban government also announced a temporary suspension of its military operations against Pakistan on Wednesday, a spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said
Monday’s airstrike on the 2,000-bed Omid Addiction Treatment hospital is the deadliest single attack in a more than three-week war between the two countries.
On Wednesday, a mass funeral was held for some of the hundreds of victims, with coffins carried from ambulances by Afghan Red Crescent Society volunteers.
Many relatives, who still do not know if their loved ones are alive or dead, continued to gather at the site of the destroyed Omid hospital.
“We came here looking for our patient, he is missing,” said Mazar, 50, who gave only one name, told Reuters. “We came to find out whether he is well, alive, or what has happened to him.”
Mazar said his relative had been admitted at the centre for the second time and there was no information about him. “We checked the lists, but his name was not in the list of the living. Maybe he is injured or has been killed,” he said.
Another man, who did not want to be named, said he had come in search of his relative on Tuesday but had not been allowed to enter the centre. “We did not find his body, nor was he among the wounded, and his name is not on the list of survivors,” he said. “We have come again today for more information.”
Afghanistan’s interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who attended Wednesday’s mass funeral said those killed were innocent victims targeted by “criminals”.
“We will take revenge,” he said, warning those behind Monday night’s bombing: “We are not weak and helpless. You will see the consequences of your crimes.”
However, Haqqani added that Afghan authorities did not want war and were “trying to solve the problems through diplomacy”.
Survivors of the attack have recalled horrific scenes in the aftermath of the bombing, describing how parts of the treatment centre were instantly reduced to rubble. Images from the scene show volunteers picking through mangled metal and piping. Clothing, mattresses and blankets could be seen in the debris.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), whose teams were on the ground in the immediate aftermath of the strikes, told Agence France-Presse that hundreds of people were killed and wounded.
A spokesperson for the Afghan interior ministry, Abdul Mateen Qanie, said: “Some of the bodies were not identifiable and are currently at the forensic department. Some bodies were intact and were handed over to their families. Others were completely destroyed, collected almost like pieces of flesh.”
Najibullah Farooqi, the head of Afghanistan’s legal medicine directorate, said bodies were being pulled out of the debris as late as Tuesday night and were being handed over to families. “Some bodies have been handed over after their identities were confirmed. However, a large number of bodies still remain with us,” he said.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have disputed the target of the airstrike.
Afghan authorities said the attack had targeted the rehabilitation centre, which had operated from the site of a former Nato military base for about a decade.
Pakistan’s military has said the site was used for storing drones and military grade ordnance, and to train suicide bombers.
The EU, UN agencies and international aid groups have said civilian and medical facilities should not be targeted during a conflict.
In a joint statement, aid groups including the NRC called for de-escalation, saying that more than 115,000 civilians were already reportedly displaced, including many children. The conflict had also led to border closures, it said, disrupting the flow of imports and leading to a rise in the price of essential items.
The conflict between the allies turned foes began last year after Islamabad accused Kabul of sheltering and backing militants carrying out attacks across Pakistan, a charge denied by the Afghan Taliban government.
The conflict had ebbed amid efforts by countries including China to mediate, but flared again last month, with Pakistan directly targeting the Afghan Taliban and not just locations of Pakistani Taliban militants Islamabad said were across the border.
