400 Killed, Nearly 250 Injured In Pakistan Strike On Kabul Hospital, Says Afghanistan

New Delhi: Amid global calls for a ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan, at least 400 people were killed and more than 250 sustained injuries in a deadly airstrike carried out by Pakistan on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul late on Monday night, a Taliban spokesperson said.

Pakistan, however, has rejected the allegation that it hit a hospital, saying that the airstrikes targeted only military facilities and not civilian sites.

The strike reportedly hit a rehabilitation centre in the Afghan capital at around 9 PM (local time in Kabul). Afghanistan's deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat, in a post on X, said the airstrike hit the hospital in Kabul, destroying large sections of the 2000-bed facility. He said the death toll has reached 400, while around 250 people were reported injured.

Footage shared by local television channels on X showed rescue workers and security personnel searching through debris with flashlights as firefighters tried to put out flames in the wreckage. Fitrat said emergency teams were still working to control the blaze and recover bodies from the site.

The airstrikes were reported just hours after Afghan officials said the two sides exchanged fire along their common border, killing four people in Afghanistan.

Condemning the strike, Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid accused Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors.” In a post on X, he said those killed and injured were innocent civilians and addicts at the 2000-bed hospital. “We strongly condemn this crime and consider such an act to be against all accepted principles and a crime against humanity,” he stated.

Pakistan dismisses the allegations

Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesperson, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations as "baseless", saying no hospital was targeted in Kabul.

Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar posted on X in the early hours Tuesday that the Pakistani military had “carried out precision airstrikes” targeting military installations in Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar. He said “technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities” at two locations in Kabul were destroyed.

“All targeting has been done with precision only at those infrastructures which are being used by Afghan Taliban regime to support its multiple terror proxies,” he wrote.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said earlier that Mujahid’s claim was “false and misleading” and aimed at stirring sentiment and cover what it described as ”illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism.” It said Pakistan’s targeting was “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted.”

UN calls on Afghanistan to combat militants

The strike came hours after the U.N. Security Council called on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to immediately step up efforts to combat terrorism. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harboring militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, which it says carry out attacks inside Pakistan.

The Security Council resolution, adopted unanimously, didn’t refer specifically to attacks carried out in Pakistan but condemns “in the strongest terms all terrorist activity including terrorist attacks.” The resolution also extends the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for three months.

Pakistan’s government accuses Afghanistan of providing safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, as well as to outlawed Baloch separatist groups and other militants who frequently target Pakistani security forces and civilians across the country. Kabul denies the charge.

The latest conflict

The fighting — the most severe between the two neighbors — began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan that Kabul said killed civilians. The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October after earlier fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.

Pakistan has declared it is in “open war” with Afghanistan. The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.

On Sunday, Tarar said the military has killed 684 Afghan Taliban forces, a claim rejected by Afghanistan, which says casualties are far lower. Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry and other officials have said Afghanistan has killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Afghanistan’s Taliban administration crossed a “red line” by deploying drones that injured several civilians in Pakistan last week.

Responding to those attacks, Pakistan’s air force over the weekend struck equipment storage sites and “technical support infrastructure” in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province, saying it was being used for attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul said Pakistan hit two locations, including an empty security site and a drug rehabilitation center that sustained minor damage.

In Kabul, Afghanistan’s administrative Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi said defending sovereignty is the duty of all citizens. Speaking during a meeting with political analysts and media figures, Hanafi expressed regret over civilian casualties in recent Pakistani attacks, saying the war was imposed on Afghanistan. (With AFP Inputs)

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