{"id":483487,"date":"2026-03-19T05:39:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483487\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T05:39:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:39:21","slug":"ipl-bound-afghanistan-cricketer-reaches-out-to-india-for-help-after-pakistans-airstrike-kills-close-to-400-in-kabul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/483487\/","title":{"rendered":"IPL-bound Afghanistan cricketer reaches out to India for help after Pakistan\u2019s airstrike kills close to 400 in Kabul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"content\">At least 400 people were reportedly killed and around 250 injured after what Afghan authorities described as a Pakistani airstrike hit a major drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul late Monday night. Islamabad, however, denied targeting civilians, stating the operation was aimed at militant infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/allah_ghazanfar_acb_1732536777856_1773814058441.jpg\" alt=\"Allah Ghazanfar was bought by MI for INR 4.18 crore at IPL 2025 auction (ACB)\" title=\"Allah Ghazanfar was bought by MI for INR 4.18 crore at IPL 2025 auction (ACB)\" width=\"360\" height=\"202\" loading=\"eager\"\/>Allah Ghazanfar was bought by MI for INR 4.18 crore at IPL 2025 auction (ACB)<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">Condemning the attack, <a class=\"backlink\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/cricket\/teams\/afghanistan-1188\" data-vars-page-type=\"story\" data-vars-link-type=\"Manual\" data-vars-anchor-text=\"Afghanistan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Afghanistan <\/a>cricketer Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar made an emotional appeal to India, seeking urgent support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">Authorities in Kabul said the strike hit a large rehabilitation facility around 9 pm local time, destroying the 2000-bed complex. Massive fires broke out, with rescue workers scrambling through debris in search of survivors. The incident underscores rapidly deteriorating relations between Pakistan and the Taliban administration, with both sides trading accusations over cross-border security threats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">Ghazanfar, who was signed by <a class=\"backlink\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/topic\/mumbai-indians\" data-vars-page-type=\"story\" data-vars-link-type=\"Manual\" data-vars-anchor-text=\"Mumbai Indians\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mumbai Indians<\/a> and is set to feature in <a class=\"backlink\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/topic\/ipl\" data-vars-page-type=\"story\" data-vars-link-type=\"Manual\" data-vars-anchor-text=\"IPL\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IPL <\/a>2026, said the centre housed thousands of vulnerable patients.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">\u201cThe people there don\u2019t have money for treatment. And now, they\u2019ve targeted that place as well; they\u2019ve martyred those people. This is not acceptable to the people of Afghanistan,\u201d he told News18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">While Afghan officials blamed Pakistan for the strike, Islamabad maintained that it was a \u201cprecision operation\u201d targeting militant bases linked to attacks on its soil.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">&#8220;I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re trying to prove. They come and target ordinary people, and we simply cannot accept this. Afghanistan cannot accept this,&#8221; Ghazanfar added. \u201cEveryone knows Afghanistan\u2019s history. If that history repeats itself, it will be very bad for Pakistan.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">He also called for international intervention, including from India.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">\u201cIndia is our close friend. We want to engage with them, to talk about these issues, so that things like this don\u2019t happen. This is our request to other countries too. This is not good for the people. Right now, the world is going through many challenges, and this is not good for anyone,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">Several Afghan cricketers echoed similar sentiments. Rashid Khan said he was \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by reports of civilian casualties, adding that targeting civilian infrastructure \u201camounts to a war crime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">Veteran all-rounder Mohammad Nabi also reacted, posting on X that the attack had \u201cextinguished hope\u201d at a medical facility, describing the loss as devastating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 400 people were reportedly killed and around 250 injured after what Afghan authorities described as a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[53665,171746,171745,1721,308,171747,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-483487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-afghanistan-cricket","tag-afghanistan-pakistan","tag-allah-mohammad-ghazanfar","tag-cricket","tag-india","tag-kabul-air-strike","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}