Families Search Unmarked Graves on Eid After Kabul Hospital Airstrike Kills Hundreds
In a heartbreaking scene during what should have been a joyous celebration, families spent Eid al-Fitr searching through unmarked mass graves for loved ones killed in a devastating Pakistan airstrike on a Kabul drug rehabilitation center. The attack, which occurred just as patients returned from Ramadan prayers, has left at least 400 dead according to Taliban authorities, with the United Nations confirming a preliminary death toll of 143.
"This Is the Saddest Moment": Brother Searches for Grave
Sohrab Faqiri spent the Muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan looking for the grave of his brother Qais, a tailor and father of a 10-year-old boy who had been receiving treatment at the Omid rehabilitation center for three months. After rushing to the facility following Monday night's airstrike, Faqiri searched hospitals across Kabul before finally identifying his brother in a video of mass burials conducted by authorities.
"Worst of all is that his grave is not known to us," Faqiri said, speaking through tears at the hillside cemetery on Kabul's outskirts where victims were buried. "This is the saddest moment, for a person on Eid day to search for the body of his brother." He has yet to tell their mother about the tragedy.
The cemetery contained rows of stones planted along lines of upturned earth, but no names to identify any of the bodies buried there. The attack occurred as patients returned to their dormitories after Tarawih prayers, special nighttime prayers during Ramadan when worshippers seek forgiveness.
Survivors Describe Horrific Scene
Wali Nazir Mohammad, 23, was resting in his bed after prayers when the explosion woke him to find his room and fellow patients on fire. "Many in the room were dead and others were screaming for help," he recalled from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for shrapnel wounds to his waist and leg.
"I have a message for our government: please take our revenge," Mohammad said. "If the government cannot take our revenge, I ask them to give us weapons."
Juma Khan Nael of the Afghan Red Crescent Society described an "unthinkable" fire that could be seen for miles and could not be controlled. "No one could help those trapped by it," he said. When rescue workers arrived the next morning, they were still digging through debris, finding only body parts rather than whole corpses, with the smell of burnt meat hanging in the air.
International Response and Conflicting Accounts
Pakistan maintains it struck a military target, claiming terrorists attacking Pakistan are being harbored by the Taliban. However, the United Nations and Afghan authorities confirm the facility was a rehabilitation center for drug addicts, with many patients scheduled for discharge the day after the attack.
Georgette Gagnon, deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, expects the death toll to rise significantly, stating "several hundred" appeared to have been killed and injured. She noted the drug treatment center was within a facility run by Afghanistan's de facto administration, which was previously a US military base before 2015.
"We call on the parties to de-escalate and re-commit to a ceasefire," Gagnon urged.
Medical Response and Patient Stories
Dejan Panic, country director of Emergency NGO which runs a major Kabul hospital, reported receiving 24 wounded patients and three dead bodies from the attack. Many suffered shell injuries from metal shrapnel entering their bodies—injuries that had become rare since the Taliban takeover in 2021.
One patient broke his thigh bone jumping from a second-floor window to escape the fire, while another nearly bled to death from a severed femoral artery but reached the hospital in time for life-saving surgery.
Panic noted that patients had spoken positively about their treatment at the Omid center, where drug addicts—once common on Kabul's streets before the Taliban takeover—were learning skills like carpentry, tailoring, and electrical work.
"The patients said that they were getting good food, clothes, and a second chance in life," Panic reported, highlighting the tragic loss of what had been a hopeful rehabilitation program for vulnerable individuals.
