Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
19-03-2026
KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: 408 people were killed and 265 wounded in an airstrike by Pakistan on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, a spokesman of the Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday, a sharp escalation in the conflict between the neighbors.
Pakistan rejected the statement as false and misleading and said it had “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” on Monday night.
The airstrike came hours after China said it remained ready to continue efforts to ease tensions between the South Asian Islamic nations and urged both to avoid expanding the war and return to the negotiating table.
The conflict that began last month is the worst between the neighbors, who share a 2,600-km (1,600-mile) border.
Drug rehab centre used to be NATO training base
Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Taliban, said in a post on social media the airstrike took place at 9 pm (1630 GMT) on Monday and targeted the state-run Omid Hospital, which he said was a 2,000-bed drug rehabilitation centre.
The Pakistani information ministry said Omid Hospital was miles away from Camp Phoenix, the “military terrorist ammunition and equipment storage site” that it said was targeted.
“The visible secondary detonations after the strikes clearly indicate the presence of large ammunition depots,” Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on social media.
Kabul residents, including a journalist, said Camp Phoenix, an abandoned NATO military base in the city, was converted into a drug treatment centre, opens new tab about a decade ago and locals referred to it as Omid Camp, or “camp of hope”, although its official name was “Ibn Sina Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital”.
It was this centre that had been hit, they said, adding that Omid Hospital and Omid Camp were not related.
Fierce fighting between the former close allies erupted last month with Pakistani air strikes in Afghanistan that Islamabad said targeted militant strongholds.
Islamabad says Kabul provides a safe haven to militants launching attacks on Pakistan. The Taliban deny the allegation, saying tackling militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.
‘It was like doomsday’; says a survivor
At the site of the airstrike, a blackened single-storey structure bore the marks of flames. In other places, buildings were reduced to heaps of wood and metal, with only a few bunk beds still intact in some, while blankets, personal belongings and bedding were strewn about.
Afghan Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qanie said 408 people were killed and 265 wounded. Afghan authorities said the dead and the wounded were taken to hospitals around Kabul but did not give details of how many bodies had been recovered and how the casualties had been counted.
Those killed were mostly civilians and addicts, added Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
Media could not verify the casualty numbers. Throughout the conflict, both sides have claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on the other but independent verification has not been possible.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, an independent aid group, said its staff had seen large numbers of casualties.
“We visited the hospital treating addicts in Kabul this morning and found hundreds of civilians dead and injured,” it said in a statement. “Civilians and civilian infrastructure must never be targeted.” (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
