Afghanistan cricket captain Rashid Khan on Saturday criticised Pakistan for its airstrike on Friday night that killed at least eight people, including three young cricketers, in the Paktika province. Seven other people were also injured.
Supporting the Afghanistan Cricket Board's (ACB) decision to pull out of the upcoming Tri-Nation T20I Series involving Pakistan, which is scheduled for November, Khan said that he was "deeply saddened" by the loss of civilian lives, in general, and the young cricketers, in particular.
"It is absolutely immoral and barbaric to target civilian infrastructure. These unjust and unlawful actions represent a grave violation of human rights and must not go unnoticed," he wrote on X, welcoming the ACB's decision.
Former Afghan team captain Mohammad Nabi also weighed in, saying that the incident was "not only a tragedy for Paktika but for the entire Afghan cricket family and the nation as a whole".
Afghan fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi also denounced Pakistan's airstrike, calling it a "heinous, unforgivable crime".
According to the ACB, the three cricketers—identified as Kabeer, Sibghatullah and Haroon—had earlier travelled to Sharana, the capital of the Paktika province, for a friendly cricket match.
It added that they were struck at a gathering after they returned to Urgun.
The airstrike on Afghanistan came hours after a Pakistani Taliban-backed suicide bomb attack on a security compound in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Mir Ali, which killed at least six militants and one soldier. A faction of the outfit, led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.
The airstrike led the Taliban to call out Islamabad for breaking the two-day ceasefire that followed nearly a week of intense Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes.
“Pakistan has broken the ceasefire and bombed three locations in Paktika (province)", an unnamed senior Taliban official told AFP.
“Afghanistan will retaliate," the official warned. However, no response has been issued from Pakistan's side yet.