‘This is the saddest moment’: families search for loved ones on Eid after Kabul hospital strike | Afghanistan

Sohrab Faqiri spent Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan, searching for the grave of his brother, who was killed in Pakistan’s massive airstrike on Kabul this week.

Pakistan’s bombing campaign against terrorist and military infrastructure in neighboring Afghanistan appeared to have gone disastrously wrong. A rehabilitation center for drug addicts was hit on Monday night, according to the United Nations and Afghan officials. While the UN’s initial death toll was 143 people, the Taliban administration estimates this figure to be more than 400 dead.

Faqiri’s brother Qais, a tailor and father of a 10-year-old boy, had been receiving treatment at the facility called Omid, or “Hope”, for the past three months. Faqiri rushed there after the airstrike but could not find him among the survivors. He spent the next two days visiting hospitals in Kabul, but there was no sign of Qais. Then, by chance, he saw the video of airstrike victims being mass buried by the authorities and saw his brother.

He went to the hillside cemetery on the edge of Kabul where his funeral was held on Thursday, a holiday celebrated in Afghanistan. There he found rows of stones planted along lines of upturned earth. However, there was no name to identify any of the bodies.

Speaking at the cemetery, Faqiri burst into tears and said, “The worst thing is that his grave is unknown.” “This is the saddest moment of a person searching for his brother’s body on Eid.” He didn’t have the courage to tell his mother yet.

The attack took place while the patients were returning to their dormitories after gathering for the tarawih prayer during Ramadan, where worshipers ask for forgiveness for their sins.

Wali Nazir Mohammad, 23, got tired after prayers and went to bed in one of the smaller buildings that housed about 20 patients in a single room. The room and some of his fellow patients were on fire when the explosion woke him up. Most of those in the room were dead, and others were screaming for help.

He had severe pain in his waist and leg. He said the room was not hit directly, but shrapnel went through the walls and cut him. About half an hour later, an ambulance took him to Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, one of Kabul’s main medical facilities. He said one of the larger buildings took a direct hit.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Mohammed said: “I have a message for our government: please take our revenge.” “If the government cannot avenge us, I want it to give us weapons.”

Juma Khan Nael of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, part of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said most of the patients had finished their treatment and would be discharged the next day. He said the fire caused by the bombing could be seen for miles.

“This fire was unthinkable, it could not be taken under control, no one could help those trapped,” he said.

Rescuers were still digging through the rubble when Nael arrived at the scene the morning after the bombing. They were not finding whole bodies, but hands, feet and pieces of flesh. The smell of burnt flesh hung in the air.

Maisam Shafiey, from the aid group Norwegian Refugee Council, said smoke was still rising when she arrived at the scene the next morning, while some patients remained in another part of the area.

Shafiey believed that most of the victims were together in one large structure. “A big building was hit. There’s nothing there now. The roof had collapsed. Everything was a pile of rubble,” he said.

Afghan officials say 408 people were killed and 265 injured. Islamabad, which claims to have hit a military target, says the terrorists attacking Pakistan are being harbored by the Taliban.

Georgette Gagnon, deputy chief of the UN mission in Afghanistan, expected the death toll in her organization to rise. He said “several hundred” people were killed and injured.

He said the drug treatment center is within a facility run by the Afghan de facto government. Before 2015, this place was a US military base. “We call on the parties to reduce tensions and recommit to a ceasefire,” he said.

Dejan Panic, country director of the Italian NGO Emergency, which runs a major hospital in Kabul, said he heard two loud explosions; The airstrike took place approximately six miles from the city.

24 injured people and three dead bodies arrived at the hospital that night; many had bullet wounds due to metal shrapnel entering their bodies. Panic said such injuries are rare in Afghanistan these days, compared to the war years before the Taliban came to power in 2021.

A man broke his femur when he jumped from a second-story window to escape the fire. Another was in danger of bleeding to death due to the rupture of the femoral artery, which carries blood to the legs, but was taken to hospital in time for surgery.

Patients with fewer injuries told Panic they were satisfied with their treatment at the rehab center. Drug addicts were a common sight in Kabul before the Taliban seized power, but they had now been removed from the streets. At the Omid center, patients were taught skills such as carpentry, tailoring and electrical work.

“Patients said they got good food, clothes and a second chance at life,” Panic said.