Bloodbath in Kabul After Pak Airstrike; India Accuses US Mercenary, Six Ukrainians of Fuelling Insurgency along Mizoram-Myanmar Border; ECI Vs We the People
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March 17, 2026
Siddharth Varadarajan
A Pakistani airstrike on a drug rehabilitation facility in Kabul killed 408 people and injured 265 others on Monday night, the Afghan Taliban government has said, while Islamabad has denied that it hit such a facility, saying it only targeted “military and terrorist infrastructure”. Pakistan has said it hit one ‘Camp Phoenix’, which it called a “military terrorist ammunition and equipment storage site” that is “actually multiple kilometres away” from the hospital that came undone. However, Kabul residents whom Reuters spoke to disputed this, saying that while Islamabad referred to one ‘Omid Hospital’ in its account, the rehab facility that was destroyed is a separate place unofficially known as ‘Omid Camp’ and which is built on what was once Camp Phoenix. The facility came under attack when its occupants were wrapping up evening prayers, with one doctor telling the news agency that “where the bombs were dropped, everyone there was killed”. The attack comes as the Taliban and Pakistan show no signs of returning to their ceasefire after it was breached late last month.
New Delhi has condemned the attack, calling it “heinous”, “cowardly and unconscionable” and saying it points to Pakistan’s “repeated attempts to externalise internal failures through increasingly desperate acts of violence beyond its borders”. That it was carried out during Ramzan “makes it all the more reprehensible”, said the external affairs ministry, adding to express its support for Afghanistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, which it notably also did during the first round of fighting between the two Islamic countries before October’s ceasefire.
Notably, the Modi governement has remained silent on the unprovoked US-Israel attack on Iran during the same holy month — a country with far deeper civilisational ties – making the contrast hard to ignore.
The Israeli military has announced the assassination of Ali Larijani, one of the the most prominent Iranian leaders to survive the first wave of US-Israeli bombing on Tehran at the start of the war. Trita Parsi offers three ‘motivations’ for his killing, none of which augur well for the future of a conflict. Today too a senior Trump administration official has quit his post citing his opposition to the Iran war. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” said Joe Kent, head of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Ukraine has lodged a formal protest over the arrest of six of its citizens under India’s anti-terror laws by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), rejecting allegations of wrongdoing and demanding consular access and their immediate release.. The protest comes after NIA last week arrested the six Ukrainians and one US citizen under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on charges of conspiring to carry out terrorist activities against India, as well as, violations of Restricted Areas act. Kyiv, however, has pointedly flagged procedural lapses, noting that “contrary to established international practice,” its embassy was not notified of the detentions. Indian agencies, for their part, claim the group travelled to Mizoram without the required permits, crossed into Myanmar, made contact with ethnic armed groups and delivered consignments of drones sourced from Europe.
Ukraine has also pushed back on media reporting about the case. “Certain publications, including in some Indian and Russian media outlets, contain distorted interpretations of the available facts, are manipulative in nature, and put forward unfounded allegations,” the foreign ministry said. It maintained that “there are no established facts proving the involvement of the said Ukrainian citizens in unlawful activities on the territory of India or Myanmar.”
Perhaps Kyiv protesteth too much? The US national arrested – Matthew Aaron Van Dyke – is a well-known mercenary and soldier of fortune who was
