Explained : New Delhi sends medical aid to Afghanistan and Its Impact

India has sent a package containing 2.5 tons of emergency medicine, medical disposables and other medical equipment to Kabul to help in the treatment of the people who were injured in a deadly Pakistani airstrike in the capital city earlier this week.

“India stands in solidarity with the Afghan people and will continue to extend all possible humanitarian support in this difficult hour,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement on social media platform X.

On March 16, the Afghan Taliban officials accused Pakistan of carrying out an airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital, killing at least 400 people. 

Pakistan denied targeting civilian infrastructure, saying that its “precision airstrikes” were aimed at “military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” in Kabul and the eastern Nangarhar province. 

India had earlier condemned the strike, deeming it “yet another act of aggression by a Pakistani establishment that remains hostile to the idea of a sovereign Afghanistan”. 

Pakistan declared an “open war” with Afghanistan in February. Clashes between the two sides intensified with cross-border fire and airstrikes striking deep in the Afghan territory, including Kabul.

A pause on strikes is currently being observed by Pakistan and the Taliban government in Afghanistan on account of  Eid al-Fitr. The halt in fighting is scheduled to last until midnight on Monday.

In recent years, India has recalibrated its Afghanistan policy marked by a thaw in its relations with the Taliban regime. The shift also comes amid the souring ties between the Afghan Taliban and India’s arch rival Pakistan. 

India does not recognize the Taliban government, but restored the status of its technical mission in Kabul to that of an embassy last year. 

India has also been the largest regional provider of humanitarian and reconstruction aid to Kabul in the pre-Taliban years. 

Why Pakistan is fighting the Taliban it once backed

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