Kabul, Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban government said a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul killed at least 400 people and injured 250, calling it a sharp escalation in the conflict between the neighbours. Pakistan rejected the claim and said it targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure.
Claims and denials over the strike
A Taliban government spokesman said on Tuesday that the air strike killed at least 400 people and injured 250 at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul.
Pakistan said the claim was false and misleading, and stated that it “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” on Monday night.
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X that “visible secondary detonations after the strikes clearly indicate the presence of large ammunition depots.”
China urges restraint
China said it remained ready to continue efforts to ease tensions and urged both sides to avoid expanding the war and return to negotiations.
Conflict context and border tensions
The conflict, which began last month, was described as the worst between the neighbours, who share a 2,600-km border. It had ebbed amid mediation efforts by countries including China before flaring again days before the Eid al-Fitr festival.
Pakistan welcomed the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, with then-Prime Minister Imran Khan saying Afghans had “broken the shackles of slavery,” but Islamabad later said the Taliban were not as cooperative as it had hoped.
Islamabad says the leadership of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and many of its fighters are based in Afghanistan, and that armed insurgents seeking independence for Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan also use Afghanistan as a safe haven.
Militancy has increased every year since 2022, with attacks by the TTP and Baloch insurgents growing, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, a global monitoring organization.
Kabul has repeatedly denied allowing militants to use Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan.
What steps do you think could help Afghanistan and Pakistan return to negotiations?
