Amnesty Pushes For Probe Into Pakistan Airstrike That Killed Hundreds At Kabul Rehab Center

Hundreds of civilians died when a Pakistani airstrike slammed into a drug rehabilitation facility in Kabul back in March. Now, Amnesty International is asking for a full investigation, saying the attack could amount to a war crime. The group looked into the strike and shared its findings, noting it found no proof backing Pakistan's claim that the center was being used for military storage or ammo.

The Omid drug treatment center had been helping people recover from addiction for roughly ten years. It sat close to Kabul's international airport, on land that used to belong to a NATO base. The facility had room for 2,000 patients. Afghanistan reported around 400 civilians were killed in the March 16 strike. Pakistan pushed back on that number, saying it had hit a military target instead. The United Nations mission in Afghanistan later confirmed at least 269 civilian deaths and over 120 injuries from the attack. Workers there warned the real count could be much higher. Afghan officials even held multiple mass funerals for the victims.

Amnesty published a detailed report after reviewing more than 60 photos and videos, including footage released by Pakistan's own military. Investigators also studied over 30 satellite images and talked to people who saw what happened. The group pointed out that none of the videos showed clear signs of weapons or ammo at the site. There were also no secondary explosions caught on camera, which would normally happen if a stockpile of explosives had been hit. Amnesty said it reached out to Pakistan's foreign ministry back in July asking for more details but did not get a response.

The airstrike did not happen in a vacuum. Months of cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan had been building up. Tensions flared in February when Pakistan declared it was in open war with Afghanistan. The UN mission documented over 370 civilians killed and close to 400 injured in Afghanistan during just the first three months of the year because of this violence. Peace talks kept failing to bring lasting calm. By late June, another Pakistani attack across the border killed at least 28 civilians in three eastern Afghan provinces. Pakistan keeps accusing Afghanistan of sheltering militants, especially the Pakistani Taliban group known as TTP, which works closely with the Afghan Taliban that took over the country in 2021. Afghanistan denies giving shelter to those fighters.

Amnesty's report made a strong point. It said the strike broke international rules meant to protect healthcare buildings and civilians. Isabelle Lassee, who serves as Amnesty's Acting Regional Director for South Asia, said the attack likely counts as a serious violation of humanitarian law and possibly a war crime. She added that knowing the site had operated as a medical center for over a decade shows a massive failure in how Pakistan planned the strike. Pakistan's information minister posted on X shortly after the attack, claiming Pakistani forces carried out precise strikes on military sites and destroyed ammo storage. Amnesty's evidence tells a very different story.