By Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Rick Noack
KABUL/ISLAMABAD, July 22 (Reuters) – Amnesty International on Wednesday called for an investigation into Pakistani airstrikes in Kabul four months ago, labeling them a “possible war crime.”
The strikes killed at least 269 civilians and injured 122 more on March 16, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said previously. UNAMA and the Taliban-run government accused Pakistan of having struck a drug rehabilitation center. Pakistan claimed its strikes that night had targeted “military and terrorist infrastructure.”
London-based Amnesty International said on Wednesday that it found no evidence to support Islamabad’s claims.
“The air strikes violated the special protection afforded to healthcare facilities under international humanitarian law (IHL),” as well as “the principles of distinction, precaution and proportionality designed to protect civilians,” Amnesty International said.
The human rights group said its findings were based on an analysis of more than 60 photos and videos from the site, as well as satellite imagery and interviews with current and former employees of the drug rehabilitation center, among other sources.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not immediately comment.
One day after the strikes, on March 17, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar described Taliban accusations that Islamabad had struck a drug rehabilitation hospital as a “falsehood.”
“No hospital, no drug rehabilitation centre, and no civilian facility was targeted,” Tarar wrote in a post.
The strikes in March came amid escalating fighting between Pakistan and the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Pakistani and Afghan security forces have continued to clash along their border in recent months.
Islamabad has defended strikes in Afghanistan as responses to a surge in militant attacks in Pakistan, for which Islamabad blames Kabul. The Taliban government has denied that it supports Pakistani militants.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul and Rick Noack in Islamabad; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
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