[A note to readers: BB’s open thread is taking a short break while he recalibrates to high-signal posting]
Pakistan Strikes a Hospital in Kabul.
Late on Monday night, the 28th night of Ramadan, a missile struck the Omid (“Hope”) Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul. It is a 2,000-bed facility built in a former NATO camp, housing thousands of young Afghans receiving treatment for drug dependency. Witnesses said they heard three explosions just as patients were completing evening prayers. Two bombs struck patient rooms directly. “The whole place caught fire. It was like doomsday,” one survivor told Reuters. Al Jazeera
Taliban authorities say 408 were killed and 265 injured; figures that remain unverified by any independent party, though the physical destruction of the hospital and the ongoing rescue operation are not in dispute. Rescuers were still pulling bodies from rubble by flashlight through the night. The UN human rights expert for Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said he was “dismayed” and urged all parties to “respect international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals.” ABC News
Pakistan insists its strikes “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” in Kabul and Nangarhar, with targeting “carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage.” CP24
One witness at the scene noted military units were positioned around the hospital perimeter; which may explain the targeting logic, if not excuse it. No secondary explosions consistent with an arms depot were filmed.
The pattern matters as much as the incident.
This conflict, the most severe between the two neighbours in years, began in late February when Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes that Kabul said killed civilians. A Qatar-brokered ceasefire was shattered.
Pakistan has since declared itself in open war with Afghanistan. NPR
The structural parallel with Gaza is not rhetorical; it is operational. One side has an air force and the other does not. One side can strike a capital city’s hospitals; the other cannot reach Islamabad. When a militarily superior power wages war in dense civilian terrain, whatever the provocation, the asymmetry of suffering becomes the story, regardless of who started it. Pakistan’s stated casus belli, TTP cross-border attacks facilitated by the Taliban, is real. But the civilian body count accumulating in Kabul is also real, and the two facts sit in the same moral universe.
There is a principle here that should not require repetition but apparently does: hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law not because the patients inside are innocent of politics, but because the sanctity of medical care is a floor beneath which no military logic is permitted to descend. Drug addicts in a rehab ward on the 28th night of Ramadan are not combatants. Bombing them, intentionally or through reckless proximity, is not a precision strike. It is a massacre.
China’s special envoy has been shuttling between Kabul and Islamabad urging a ceasefire. CBS News
He has nothing to show for it. Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are both present in the region and actively trying to resurface. NPR
A full Pakistan-Afghanistan war is the vacuum they have been waiting for. Islamabad’s generals may believe they are winning. History suggests otherwise.
Pakistanis making fun of Palestinians.
how is SM trash relevant. Lets not resort to elevating such nonsense.
Meanwhile, Ali Wazir has been reportedly disappeared, once again.
The portents are not looking good for Pakistan, and its to a degree, understandable why the ‘open war’ against Afghanistan is being used to try and rally support.
There is one fundamental difference between Afghanistan and Palestine. Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are internationally considered Occupied Palestinian Territory. Afghanistan is a sovereign nation.
Gaza has been compared to an open air prison (this is quite mild language) for years. The same cannot be said for Afghanistan.
I really hope that Pakistan did not intentionally strike a hospital. If it did, I am not going to defend it. For what it’s worth, our information ministry says such claims are baseless.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1983000/information-ministry-rubbishes-afghan-talibans-claims-of-hospital-being-hit-in-kabul
On the larger issue: All Afghanistan has to do is stop allowing the TTP to plan anti-Pakistan activity. If they choose not to do so, Pakistan is fully within its rights to take defensive action. The safety and security of Pakistani citizens is paramount. Afghanistan should know better than to antagonize a much more militarily powerful state.
This was the same logic that operated during “Operation Sindoor” no?
So murdering civilians with air strikes in a ‘sovereign nation’ is halal?
Pakistan has been mistreating Afghans horrifically for years now. The forced migration of millions of Afghans, vast numbers of whom were actually born and raised in Pakistan, was a shameful violation of human rights.
>This was the same logic that operated during “Operation Sindoor” no?
So are you asserting that Indian actions against LeT and JeM in Operation Sindoor is justified?
Btw, Indian strikes were quite accurately limited to terrorist bases and PakMil military locations. Not targeting civilian airfields or hospitals.
There is a marked difference in the conduct of the Pakistani military and their Indian counterparts. The former disowns their own soldiers, while the latter respects even the enemy fallen. There is no …. ‘sem 2 sem’
1) You are only a Pakistani citizen if you have Pakistani parents. Afghan refugees were never promised Pakistani citizenship.
2) India says it only struck “terrorist bases”. Pakistani know India killed Pakistani women and children. India struck mosques and schools.
Don’t play the innocent.
It’s “Don’t play innocent”.
Ingliss, saar.
“Don’t play the innocent” is perfectly correct English.
Don’t play this game with me.
Inglissss
1) You are only a Pakistani citizen if you have Pakistani parents. Or if a non-Pakistani woman marries a Pakistani. That’s the law.
Refugees were never promised citizenship.
2) India says it only struck “terrorist bases”. Pakistanis know India killed women and children. India struck mosques and schools.
If India is allowed to take whatever actions it deems necessary for its national security–and surely as an Indian nationalist you think that it is allowed to do so– than so is Pakistan.
Our national security is paramount.
Bombing hospitals and airports in Kabul does not enhance Pakistan’s national security. It endangers it.
Just like the Umreeki war on Iran is immoral, Pakistan’s ‘open war’ on Afghanistan is similarly questionable, at a minimum.
The ‘national security’ justification does not hold water. All logic indicates that prolonged hostilities with the Taliban are going to increase the risk to Pakistani civilians, not deter them.
The Taliban refused to surrender to the Russians, or to the Americans during the WoT. Does PakMil really believe it can get a better outcome?
Kabir, civilian deaths are always unjustifiable. Omid Hospital was a groundbreaking institute in drug rehabilitation; this speaks to deliberate action rather than incidental.
PakMil previously bombed civilian airports – the bombings in Kabul and Kandahar has quite overtly not been restricted to military targets. Its been punitive in nature and gone after economic assets, howsoever limited, that the Afghans have.
Its quite indefensible really. You should really do a post on how Pakistan forcibly “repatriated” millions upon millions of civilians back into Afghanistan, a big chunk of those, actual birthright citizens of Pakistan. If I do it, it will get dismissed as “anti-Pakistan”.
Pakistan’s treatment of Afghanistan since the 1980s has been quite, something.
you are welcome to write that post.
I am explicitly attempting to restrict myself to comments on Pakistan not ‘posts’. To some degree, I accept Kabir’s pushback that criticism of Pakistan should be more driven by Pakistanis themselves.
I will write a post on Pakistan-related topic if I have something noteworthy to say. Unfortunately, the chaos, the corruption, the exploitation of its entrapped citizens – none of that is new at all.
Pakistan doesn’t have “birthright” citizens. Check your facts.
You can only be a Pakistani citizen if you have Pakistani parents. That’s the law. It doesn’t matter where you are born.
Kabir the law is not always correct or moral. RNJ does make a good point; Pakistan expelled people who were “essentially” Pakistanis.
Surely, every country has the right to decide whether they want to do “birthright” citizenship or not.
Pakistan doesn’t do so.
Afghans are not Pakistani by blood.
I’m not defending bombing a hospital.
Our Information Ministry says that claim is baseless. I will always trust Pakistan’s information ministry over claims on social media.
The biggest issue with this “open war” unleashed by Muneer against the Afghans, is that it actually does not hold the ‘safety and security of pakistani citizens as paramount’.
The careless escalation of military strikes against Afghan cities and civilians is going to increase risks for Pakistani civilians. But that is completely fine for the fedual overlords of PakMil. In fact, if there are retaliatory strikes by Afghans in Pakistan, that cause more casualties, that will only serve to strengthen the PakMil’s hold on Pakistan.
Its a broken record cliche, but it holds true. The incentives for choices made by those that govern Pakistan are not aligned with what is in the interests of Pakistani citizens. And this divergence explains why the Pakistani state finds itself in its bankrupt basket-case state. From security, to governance, to economy, to cricket. The kleptocracy makes choices that benefits them, not the country or its citizens.
And its a shame that folks that consider themselves to be ‘patriots’ are unwilling or incapable of uttering a peep against it.
Afghanistan has legitimate grievances including the illegal colonial era Durand line.
People of NWFP didn’t even want to join Pakistan.
Now you are just gloating and dragging unnecessary and irrelevant history into this thread. Its counter-productive.
Not really. I am replying to @Kabir’s suggestions of Afghanistan stopping their attacks on Pakistan.
Afghanistan won’t just lie back and stop attacking Pakistan unless the Durand line is resolved.
Pakistanis cannot expect Afghans to accept the Durand line when they themselves cannot accept the LOC.
Kashmir has never been part of Pakistan, an entity formed in 1947.
Peshawar has been part of the Afghan empire for many many centuries.
Afghans will never accept the Durand Line.
Nonsense – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_North-West_Frontier_Province_referendum
The North-West Frontier Province referendum (Pashto: د شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ایالت ټولپوښتنه) was held in July 1947 to decide whether the North-West Frontier Provinceof British India would join the Dominion of India or Pakistan upon the Partition of India. The polling began on 6 July and the results were made public on 20 July. Out of the total population of 4 million in the NWFP, only 572,798 were eligible to vote, of whom only 51.00% voted in the referendum. 289,244 (99.02%) of the votes were cast in favor of Pakistan and only 2,874 (0.98%) in favor of India.[1][2]
The NWFP Chief Minister Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan (Dr. Khan Sahib), his brother Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and the Khudai Khidmatgars boycotted the referendum, citing that it did not have the options of the NWFP becoming independent or joining Afghanistan.[3][4] Their appeal for boycott had an effect, as according to an estimate, the total turnout for the referendum was 15% lower than the total turnout in the 1946 elections.[5]
Because of the boycott like you mentioned.
NWFP people followed Bacha Khan and he didn’t want to be part of Pakistan.
Boycott reduced 15% of the vote; increase the signal of your comments pls
Bacha Khan’s imprisonment by Pakistan mirrors how the Abdullahs in J&K were treated by India.
This is why ‘re-litigating partition or borders’ in Ind/Pak is a waste of time. Its a luxury that sub-saharan level economies can ill-afford.
Not especially – if Baluchistan is not Kashmir, NWFP
Is certainly not Kashmir ..
of course it isn’t. But the parallel I pointed out, kinda holds. Anyway, I’m not extrapolating from that to question NWFP is somehow disputed. Just an observation.
KPK. “NWFP” was a British colonial name.
“NWFP” was part of British India. There’s no question of it being disputed.
For the umpteenth time, the Durand Line was the border between British India and Afghanistan. Pakistan inherited that border in 1947.
The Durand Line is not like the “Line of Control”. It’s a settled border not a ceasefire line. It is equivalent to the Radcliffe Line.
“NWFP” is a British colonial name. The place is called KPK.
Not “settled” according to Afghans.
It’s a settled question in International Law. The Durand Line is like the Radcliffe Line.
Afghans can’t take an inch of Pakistan. We are a nuclear power. They are not.
Op Sindoor didn’t bomb a hospital as you know
Kabir, you might be gloating and celebrating the death of civilians here but let me tell you – the Afghans do not forget.
Their vengeance will be great and it will consume all of Pakistan.
Pakistan is a nuclear power. Afghanistan is not.
There is no comparison.
We will ensure Pakistan’s national security at all costs.
You will nuke yourself?
Afghanistan is not capable of defeating Pakistan.
If they want to be an Indian proxy, we will deal with them.
Afghan brothers, just hold till the 2040s.
Post that you get Kusha, Tejas, AMCA etc
Tab mazaa aayega na bhidu.