drug treatment centre.  The halt in operations for Eid al-Fitr from Thursday to Monday had been requested by "brotherly Islamic countries" Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, information minister Attaullah Tarar said. "Pakistan offers this gesture in good faith and in keeping with the Islamic norms," he wrote on X. But he warned: "In case of any cross-border attack, drone attack or any terrorist incident inside Pakistan, (operations) shall immediately resume with renewed intensity." There was no immediate response from the Taliban authorities. On Monday night, Pakistani jets struck a drug rehabilitation centre in the Afghan capital, in the deadliest attack yet in the escalating violence between the two neighbours. The Taliban authorities have said that around 400 people were killed and more than 200 wounded but the government in Islamabad rejected claims from Kabul of a deliberate strike. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harbouring extremists behind cross-border attacks on its territory. Afghanistan denies doing so.

A mass funeral for some of the victims of Monday's strike was held on a rainswept hillside above the Afghan capital earlier on Wednesday afternoon. Afghan Red Crescent Society volunteers carried dozens of simple wooden coffins from a fleet of ambulances to a mass grave dug in the rocky ground by giant excavators. At the graveside, Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani said they were innocent victims targeted by "criminals", days before the end of the Muslim holy month. "We will take revenge," he added and warned those behind Monday night's bombing: "We are not weak and helpless. You will see the consequences of your crimes." (Bssnews)