New funeral for victims of Kabul drug rehab bombing
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Afghan men offering prayers during a second mass funeral for victims of a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation centre, at the Eidgah Mosque in Kabul, on March 26.
PHOTO: AFP
KABUL – A second mass funeral for about 60 victims of a Pakistani strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul was held on March 26, with emotional scenes in the Afghan capital.
At the Eidgah Mosque, Ms Samira Muhammadi wept for her 20-year-old son Aref Khan, who had been admitted to the medical facility just over two weeks before it was hit.
“I was told that his body had been reduced to ashes,” she told AFP, trying to hold back tears.
About 60 wooden coffins were laid out on the forecourt of the mosque.
Hundreds of men, many of them relatives, lined up to pray for the dead.
“There are about 60 bodies,” Afghan Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman told AFP, adding that the identification of other victims was ongoing.
Families who had yet to find their loved ones tried to lift the lids of the coffins to see if they recognised them.
After the prayer, the coffins were taken to a mass grave on a hill in Kabul, where about 50 other victims of the strike were buried on March 18.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have been in conflict for months, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of harbouring extremists who have carried out cross-border attacks on its territory.
The authorities in Kabul deny the accusations.
Pakistan maintains that its March 16 bombing was a precision strike against “military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”.
Mr Zaman said the death toll was now 411.
The UN mission in Afghanistan said its provisional toll was 143 dead and 119 wounded, but added that it was “very likely to increase”.
According to a UN toll that does not include the strike on the drug treatment centre, at least 76 Afghan civilians have been killed since Feb 26. AFP
