ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan’s government accused Pakistan of targeting a Kabul hospital on Monday night in airstrikes that killed 400 people and injured around 250, while Islamabad rejected the allegations by saying it had destroyed military installations in Kabul and Nangarhar via precision strikes.
Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson of Afghanistan, wrote on social media platform X that Pakistan carried out an airstrike on Monday night at the 2,000-bed Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital. He said large sections of the hospital, which is dedicated to the treatment of drug addiction, were destroyed in the attack that killed 400 people and injured around 250.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar rejected the allegation, saying Islamabad had targeted the Afghan Taliban regime’s “terrorism sponsoring military installations” in Kabul and Nangarhar via precision strikes on Monday night.
“Technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities at two locations in Kabul were effectively destroyed,” Tarar wrote on social media platform X.
Afghan rescue teams and Taliban security personnel search for bodies under the rubble of a damaged building after an airstrike hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services, in Kabul on March 16, 2026. (AFP)
“The visible secondary detonations after the strikes clearly indicate the presence of large ammunition depots.”
He said Pakistan’s armed forces struck four Afghan Taliban military sites in Nangarhar as well, destroying logistics, ammunition and technical infrastructure.
The Pakistani minister said only those infrastructures were targeted in the airstrikes that were being used by the Afghan Taliban to support its “multiple terror proxies.”
“False claims made by the propagandists Taliban regime cannot befool the Afghans and the world from their heinous actions supporting and sponsoring terrorism in the region,” Tarar said.
In a separate post on X, Pakistan’s information ministry said Omid Hospital is located multiple kilometers away from the ammunition and equipment storage site targeted on Monday night.
“It can also be well seen that the actual hospital is a multi storied structure as compared to the military/terrorist infrastructure actually targeted whose image is also attached,” the ministry wrote. “The difference and lie is clear to see.”
CHINA CALLS FOR RESTRAINT
Separately, China’s foreign ministry urged the two countries on Tuesday to “swiftly implement a ceasefire” and resolve their differences through dialogue, according to international news agency AFP.
“China will continue to leverage its own channels to play a constructive role in de-escalating tensions and facilitating the improvement of bilateral relations,” Chinese spokesman Lin Jian was quoted as telling reporters by AFP.
“Dialogue and negotiation constitute the only effective means of resolving issues between the two countries.”
Taliban security personnel carry a body on a blanket at the site of a damaged building after an airstrike hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Centre in Kabul on March 16, 2026. (AFP)
Pakistan and Afghanistan have both accused each other of targeting civilians after fierce clashes erupted between both sides late last month.
The accusations come amid escalating cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan that have involved artillery exchanges, drone attacks and airstrikes along their rugged frontier. The fighting erupted after Afghan forces targeted Pakistani border posts on Feb. 26, which Islamabad said was in response to earlier Pakistani strikes on militant camps inside Afghanistan.
Afghan medical staff load a dead body onto an ambulance after an airstrike hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Centre in Kabul on March 16, 2026. (AFP)
Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups, particularly the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), that launch attacks across the border, a charge Kabul denies. The latest violence has raised regional concerns, with countries including China urging both sides to de-escalate and resolve tensions through dialogue.
The latest accusations highlight the continuing deterioration in relations between the two neighbors, whose roughly 2,600-kilometer border has long been a flashpoint for militancy and cross-border raids.
Pakistan says its forces have killed more than 680 Afghan Taliban fighters since the clashes began last month, while Kabul says dozens of Pakistani soldiers have been killed in cross-border fighting.
Neither side’s battlefield claims can be independently verified.
