A Pakistani strike killed her son in rehab. Now an Afghan mother demands answers

Samira Muhammadi holds up a photograph of her son, Aref Khan, who was killed by a Pakistani airstrike that struck a drug rehabilitation centre on March 16.Photo: AFP Samira Muhammadi hopes an international investigation can “extinguish” her pain after a Pakistani bombing killed her son and hundreds of other Afghans in the capital Kabul last month.

The March 16 attack hit a drug treatment centre and killed 411 people, according to Afghan officials.

A United Nations source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had verified at least 250 killed, with more still missing. “There should be investigations on this … Like me, many mothers lost their sons, many women lost their husbands and many sisters lost their brothers,” Muhammadi, 43, said at her home, where she scrolled through photos of her eldest son.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have been locked in an escalating conflict over claims from Islamabad that Kabul is harbouring militants responsible for cross-border attacks, which the Taliban government denies.

Afghan men walk among debris at the site of a drug rehabilitation centre destroyed in a Pakistani air strike in Kabul on March 16.

Photo: Reuters Pakistan has maintained it struck a military installation and did not respond to questions about a possible investigation into the deadly Kabul bombing.

Journalists at the scene in the hours after the attack saw dozens of bodies, including some that had been torn apart and burned.

The force of the blast made it difficult to identify some of the victims, the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian NGO, said shortly after visiting the site.

Muhammadi’s 20-year-old son, Aref Khan, had become addicted to methamphetamine while working at a slaughterhouse in Iran alongside his mother. “His coworkers told him the drug would help him stay awake,” she said.

The family returned to Afghanistan a few months ago and tried to build a life in Kabul, with Khan working as a day labourer while Muhammadi found employment as a domestic cleaner.

But Afghan authorities had her son admitted to the “Camp Omid” rehabilitation centre in eastern Kabul to deal with his addiction. “I sat with him and recorded a video of him, and he was having his food,” recounted Muhammadi, who had brought her son supplies just hours before the attack. “Usually, when there is a war, the military places are targeted or hit, so why did they [Pakistan] hit the hospital?” she said.

Seventeen international humanitarian NGOs, including War Child U

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