Pakistan, Afghanistan to pause fighting for Eid, as dispute rages over Kabul bombing target

Pakistan and Afghanistan said they were pausing their military operations against each other on Wednesday for the Islamic festival of Eid-al-Fitr, a surprise move two days after a drug rehab centre in Kabul ⁠was hit in the deadliest strike in months.

The Afghan Taliban government has said that more than 400 people were killed and 265 wounded in the airstrike that took place ⁠on Monday night, just as people and staff at the centre were praying.

The casualty numbers shared by authorities have ‌not been independently verified. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said ​on Wednesday that 143 people were killed and 119 wounded in the attack.

Pakistan rejected the Taliban's statements about the strike, saying it had "precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure".

PAUSE A GESTURE IN GOOD FAITH, PAKISTAN SAYS

Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Islamabad was pausing the military operations due to Eid, which marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan and is set to be celebrated at the end of this week.

The pause, he said in a post on X, was on Pakistan's ​own initiative and at the request of Islamic countries Saudi ⁠Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. The pause would take effect at midnight on Wednesday and last until midnight on March 23.

"Pakistan offers this gesture in good faith and in keeping with the Islamic norms," he said, adding that operations would resume with renewed intensity if there was any cross-border attack, drone attack or any "terrorist incident" inside Pakistan.

The Afghan Taliban followed with a similar announcement soon after Tarar.

Kabul was calling a temporary halt to defensive operations on the occasion of Eid ⁠and also at the ‌request of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, Taliban government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a post on X.

Afghanistan would respond to any aggression in the event of any threat, he added.

Tarar also said that 707 people have been killed so far in Pakistan's ‌action against Afghanistan. Both sides have regularly claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on the other and independent verification has not been possible.

UNAMA said that before the rehab centre incident, 76 people were killed and ⁠213 injured in Afghanistan, the majority of them women and children.

SITE WAS USED TO STORE DRONES, PAKISTAN SAYS

The airstrike on the Kabul drug rehab centre marked a new low point in the relationship between the Islamic neighbours and former ‌allies at a time of heightened instability for the region due to the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have fiercely disputed ‌the target of the airstrike.

Afghan authorities said the attack had clearly targeted a well-known rehabilitation centre, a former NATO military base named Camp ‌Phoenix that had been converted into a civilian facility about a decade ago.

Pakistan has said it hit Camp Phoenix, a "military terrorist ammunition and equipment storage ‌site". It added that secondary detonations visible after the strikes indicated the presence of large ammunition depots there.

On Wednesday, the Pakistani military said in a statement that the facility targeted was also being used as a site to store drones, equipment to launch drones, and "reportedly also housed SCUD missiles of the Soviet era".

"We also know that the site was used for training of ⁠suicide bombers," it said, adding that ⁠intelligence confirmed that the site was used as a drug rehab centre a few years ago.

The Pakistani military did not provide evidence to back its accusations and there was no immediate response to them from the Afghan Taliban.

DISPUTE OVER TARGET OF AIRSTRIKE

Independent experts said it was challenging to establish the truth about the target in the face of the competing claims without a third-party investigation.

“There are enough elements to confirm that this was a civilian facility that was hit,” said Jacopo Caridi, country director for aid group the Norwegian Refugee Council in Afghanistan, adding that military infrastructure may have been located nearby. "They might have missed the objective, but the result is that civilians were killed or injured.”

Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, a political scientist at the University of Pittsburgh and an Afghanistan expert, said it was plausible for ​civilian facilities to be located within or near former military sites in Kabul.

The conflict between the allies-turned-foes began last year after Pakistan accused Afghanistan of ​sheltering and backing militants carrying out attacks across Pakistan, a charge ​denied by the Afghan Taliban government.

The conflict had ebbed amid efforts by friendly countries including China to mediate, but flared again with Pakistan directly targeting the Afghan Taliban last month and not just Pakistani Taliban militants Islamabad ​says are in the country.