Bombing Ravages Kabul-Jalalabad Highway Facility
At approximately 20:50 local time on March 16, three bombs struck a drug rehabilitation centre on the Kabul-Jalalabad highway, unleashing chaos and destruction. A doctor present during the attack, who requested anonymity due to restrictions from the Taliban government, described the harrowing scene.
“One bomb tore through a hangar-like structure where newly admitted patients were housed,” he revealed. “The other two bombs hit containers and wooden barracks sheltering patients, food storage units, and administrative, security, and support offices.”
Fire Engulfs Vocational Training Buildings
The United Nations’ Fiona Frazer highlighted that the strike also razed the hospital’s vocational training areas—primarily wooden structures—triggering an enormous blaze. The ensuing inferno compounded the devastation within the facility.
The UN’s investigation reported that the primary causes of death and injury were severe shrapnel wounds and burns. The magnitude of the explosion and fire left many victims unrecognizable, with some bodies reduced to dismembered remains.
Horrific Aftermath Shakes Medical Staff
“I have never witnessed such a horrific scene in my life,” the doctor recounted. “I walked among lifeless bodies, desperately searching for anyone still alive, listening for cries for help. The stench of burning flesh was overwhelming.”
Families Gripped by Agony and Uncertainty
In eastern Kabul, the air was thick with dread when Sediq Walizada received a phone call alerting him that the rehabilitation centre had been bombed. His 35-year-old brother, Mohammad Anwar Walizada, had been admitted just four days earlier for Tablet-K addiction—a growing urban epidemic in Afghanistan.
This bombing has plunged families like the Walizadas into agonizing uncertainty, as they desperately seek answers about their loved ones amid the rubble.
