Mass funeral in Afghanistan for victims of Pakistan rehab centre strike; Taliban vows revenge
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Mass funeral in Afghanistan for victims of Pakistan rehab centre strike; Taliban vows revenge")
Afghan Red Crescent Society volunteers stand near the coffins of victims of a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation centre, during a mass burial at the Badam Bagh Hilltop in Kabul on March 18, 2026. Photograph: (AFP)
Afghanistan’s Taliban government Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani has promised retribution for this week’s Pakistani airstrike that killed hundreds at a Kabul drug rehabilitation centre.
Afghanistan has vowed to retaliate against Pakistan as authorities perform mass burials for victims of a devastating airstrike that struck a drug treatment centre in the capital, Kabul. The nation is currently preparing last rites for the hundreds killed in Monday night's strike, which flattened the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital.
Afghanistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, on Tuesday confirmed that more than 408 individuals "under treatment" for narcotics addiction were killed and over 265 were injured in a Pakistani strike, many of whom remain in critical condition.
Earlier in the day, two large excavators were seen digging on a hill in Kabul, AFP reported. Taliban's interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani confirmed a mass funeral would be held there.
"Not all 400 bodies will be buried in Kabul because some of them were transferred to their provinces," he added.
However, Pakistan has denied Taliban government claims that the centre was deliberately targeted and said it had carried out precision strikes on "military installations and terrorist support infrastructure".
Also Read: Kill anyone in sight: Israel authorises its military to kill any high-ranking Iranian officials
Trending Stories
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
The recent Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict, termed "open war" by Islamabad, was triggered after Pakistan's Pakistan Air Force (PAF) launched airstrikes on targets in Afghanistan's Nangarhar, Paktika, and Khost provinces on what it described as terror hideouts, following the Islamabad Mosque bombing on February 6 and high casualty attacks on military checkpoints in Bajaur and Bannu Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province of northwestern Pakistan in mid-February.
Pakistan has repeatedly alleged that its north-western neighbour backs Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and offers safe haven to militants targeting Islamabad, an accusation Afghanistan has consistently rejected.
Afghanistan vows revenge
Afghanistan’s Taliban government Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani has promised retribution for this week’s Pakistani airstrike that killed hundreds at a Kabul drug rehabilitation centre.
"We will take revenge," the Taliban government minister said on Wednesday at the mass burial of some of the victims in the capital, calling those behind Monday night's bombing "criminals".
"We are not weak and helpless. You will see the consequences of your crimes," he added.
On Tuesday, describing Pakistan's actions as "pure oppression and an unjustified war," Taliban's Foreign Minister Muttaqi vowed, "reciprocal, proportionate, and legitimate defensive measures until the other side ceases its violations and refrains from its crimes".
