Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Vowing retaliation after the strike on Afghanistan’s Omar Addiction Treatment Hospital, Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told TOI from Kabul on Tuesday that the attack “will not go unanswered”, asserting that a response will follow.In videos circulating online after the incident, large flames were seen engulfing the hospital, with thick plumes of black smoke rising into the night sky, as parts of the building appear severely damaged.Mujahid put the death toll at “400-plus, with about 250 injured shifted to hospitals across Kabul”.Talking to TOI over phone from the Afghanistan capital, Mujahid said the Taliban govt was currently focused on rescue operations and identifying victims, but made it clear that action would follow. “Right now, we are busy with rescue, identifying the dead and searching for the injured. It is a matter of deep sorrow for us. But this crime and inhumane brutality will not go unanswered,” he said.The remarks come amid rising tensions following what the Taliban has described as a Pakistani airstrike on a civilian medical facility. Islamabad has denied targeting civilians, saying its strikes were aimed at “terrorist infrastructure”.Dismissing Pakistan’s denial, Mujahid accused Islamabad of attempting to shape the narrative. “As a result of Pakistan’s aggression last night, the hospital in Kabul—specifically a rehabilitation centre for people recovering from addiction—was attacked. The entire facility was set on fire. The hospital, and everything inside was consumed by it,” he said.Framing the incident as a deliberate attack on civilians, Mujahid insisted there was no military presence at the site. “This is an inhuman act. We strongly condemn it. There was no military presence at this location—it was a civilian medical facility treating vulnerable people,” he said. He said the facility housed adult male patients undergoing long-term rehabilitation. They were innocent civilians “who had been saved from the clutches of death” at the deaddiction centre, Mujahid added.“Pakistan will offer justifications for their crimes and their oppression… They will try their best to deny responsibility and attempt to justify this through propaganda, but such brutality cannot be excused,” he said. “This barbarism will be appropriately responded to, Inshallah (God willing),” Mujahid repeated in Urdu.“This is like Israel in Afghanistan—they attack, commit oppression to ignite regional fires and achieve evil goals through terrorism,” the spokesperson charged, vowing to expose Pakistan’s “brutality” to global human rights bodies.“Such actions risk destabilising the region. Pakistan’s aim and purpose is to ignite conflict and to use terrorism to advance their sinister objectives. We want this incident to be raised globally. The international community and human rights organisations must take note of Pakistan’s brutality,” Mujahid said. The remarks come amid a sharp escalation in tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with weeks of cross-border strikes, drone attacks and retaliatory operations along the Durand Line pushing the two sides toward open conflict. Islamabad has accused Kabul of harbouring Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants, a charge the Taliban denies.The hospital strike marks a grave escalation and is being seen as one of the deadliest incidents in Afghanistan’s history.
