Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of deadly air strike on drug rehab centre in Kabul

KABUL – At least 400 people were killed and 250 injured in an air strike by Pakistan on a drug users’ rehabilitation hospital in the Afghan capital of Kabul, the deputy spokesman of the Afghan Taliban government said on March 17, reported Reuters.

Pakistan denied deliberately targeting the facility, instead saying it had conducted precision strikes on “military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”.

The Pakistani military has struck Kabul several times in recent weeks, as part of a conflict sparked by claims that the Taliban government has harboured extremists who have carried out attacks across the border.

Loud explosions rocked the city at 9pm local time on March 16 (12.30am on March 17, Singapore time), prompting return anti-aircraft fire and forcing residents to run for cover in panic as they were out and about after breaking their daily Ramadan fast.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on X that the Pakistani military had “once again violated Afghan territory”, calling the strikes “a crime” and an “act of inhumanity”.

Once anti-aircraft guns stopped firing at about 10pm local time, an AFP team was able to reach the rehabilitation centre and saw fleets of ambulances as well as firefighters brought in to douse flames in burning and destroyed buildings.

AFP journalists counted at least 30 dead as medical teams worked to help the wounded, who were taken to several hospitals for treatment, according to a source working with the rescue operation.

Mr Dejan Panic, Afghan director of the Italian non-governmental organisation EMERGENCY, said it had received three bodies after the strike late on March 16 and was treating 27 wounded.

But Afghan Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman told AFP: “The preliminary reports are that so far we have more than 200 martyrs and more than 200 injured.”

Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, however, said the death toll was at least double that, with 250 wounded.

‘No off-ramps’

Long-running cross-border clashes between the two sides escalated in October 2025, leaving dozens dead, but after subsiding they resumed in February, with Pakistan describing the conflict as “open war”.

On March 13, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan confirmed the deaths of at least 75 civilians in the country since clashes with Pakistan intensified on Feb 26.

Pakistan said it also hit targets on March 16 in the eastern border province of Nangarhar, which was also being used “against innocent Pakistani civilians”.

“Pakistan’s targeting is precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted,” the Information Ministry said.

Mr Omid Stanikzai, 31, a security guard at the drug treatment centre, told AFP: “I heard the sound of the jet patrolling.

“There were military units all around us. When these military units fired on the jet, the jet dropped bombs and a fire broke out.”

All of the dead and injured were civilians, he added.

China said on March 16 that its special envoy had spent a week mediating between the two sides and had urged an immediate ceasefire.

But South Asia expert Michael Kugelman, from the Atlantic Council international affairs think-tank, told AFP the fighting showed little sign of ending soon.

“The Arab Gulf nations that mediated previous rounds of Afghanistan-Pakistan talks are now bogged down by their own war. Other mediators, including China, have had limited success,” he said.

“Pakistan appears intent to keep hitting targets in Afghanistan, and the Taliban (appears) determined to retaliate with operations on Pakistani border posts and potentially with asymmetric tactics – from launching drones to sponsoring militant attacks in wider Pakistan.

“There are no off-ramps in sight.”

Cross-border trade has ground to a halt and about 115,000 people have been forced to leave their homes because of the conflict, according to the UN refugee agency.

The World Food Programme said on March 15 that it has started delivering “life-saving food” to more than 20,000 displaced Afghan families and warned that “further instability will push millions into hunger”. AFP