Samira Muhammadi hopes an international investigation can “extinguish” her pain after a Pakistani bombing killed her son and hundreds of other Afghans in Kabul last month.
The March 16 attack hit a drug treatment centre and killed 411 people, according to officials.
A United Nations source said they had verified at least 250 killed, with more still missing.
“There should be investigations on this... Like me, many mothers lost their sons, many women lost their husbands and many sisters lost their brothers,” Samira, 43, said at her home, scrolling through photos of her eldest son.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have been locked in an escalating conflict over claims from Islamabad that Kabul is harbouring militants responsible for cross-border attacks, which the Taliban government denies.
Pakistan has maintained it struck a military installation and did not respond to questions about a possible probe into the deadly Kabul bombing.
The force of the blast made it difficult to identify some of the victims, the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian NGO, said shortly after visiting the site.
Samira’s 20-year-old son, Aref Khan, had become addicted to methamphetamine while working at a slaughterhouse in Iran alongside his mother.
“His coworkers told him the drug would help him stay awake,” she said.
The family returned to Afghanistan a few months ago and tried to build a life in Kabul, with Aref working as a day labourer while Samira found employment as a domestic cleaner.
But Afghan authorities had her son admitted to the “Camp Omid” rehabilitation centre in eastern Kabul to deal with his addiction.
“I sat with him and recorded a video of him, and he was having his food,” recounted Samira, who had brought her son supplies just hours before the attack.
“Usually, when there is a war, the military places are targeted or hit, so why did they (Pakistan) hit the hospital?” she said.
Samira remained determined to seek justice despite the uphill struggle.
To “investigate why a 20-year-old, who had been taken to the hospital for treatment, was killed and burnt,” she said.
“If we do not ask about this now, we will probably experience the same harm again.” — AFP
