Why deadly Afghanistan hospital strike is an ironic moment for Pakistan

Afghan firefighters and Taliban security personnel work to extinguish fires after an airstrike hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Centre in Kabul on March 16, 2026. (AFP)

• Pakistan airstrike on Kabul hospital kills 400, injures 250
• Afghanistan says state-run Omid hospital destroyed in attack
• Pakistan faces scrutiny for targeting civilian infrastructure

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In one of the bloodiest and intense military actions against Afghanistan, Pakistan on Monday night launched an air strike on a rehabilitation hospital in Kabul which left at least 400 people dead and over 250 injured.

Though Pakistan maintained that it only targeted "military installations and terrorist support infrastructure", Afghanistan said that the strikes struck its state-run Omid hospital - a 2,000-bed drug rehabilitation centre.

Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Taliban, said that large parts of the hospital have been destroyed in the strikes and claimed "heavy casualties" in the dastardly attack.

Hypocrisy exposed?

The latest strikes by Pakistan targeting civilian infrastructure in Afghanistan exposes its own hypocrisy since it is the same country that falsely accused India of killing civilians during Operation Sindoor last year.

After India's precise military strikes against terror facilities across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, Islamabad sought to internationalise the issue by claiming that several civilians were killed in the attack.

Pakistani authorities initially reported at least 26 civilian deaths and dozens of injuries following Indian strikes on May 7. It later said that overall civilian fatalities from Indian actions and follow-on exchanges had crossed 40, including women and children.

Officials in Pakistan used these figures to accuse India of violating international humanitarian law and to rally domestic and international opinion against New Delhi.

It even broadcast images and videos of mass funerals of terrorists killed in the strikes, with prayers ironically being led by US-designated terrorists alongside Pakistani Army personnel.

India maintained that its military action was “precise, measured and non-escalatory” and aimed strictly at terror infrastructure.

Full circle

Pakistan’s latest strikes on Afghanistan brings its long-standing narrative on cross-border action full circle, placing Islamabad in a tough spot as it faces scrutiny over the killing of civilians.

In a post on X before Afghan officials gave a death toll, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said the strikes “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban” and Afghanistan-based Pakistani militants in Kabul and Nangarhar.

It said Pakistan’s targeting was “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted.”

However, powerful visuals emerging from Afghanistan suggest that Pakistan may be crossing the very red line it accused India of breaching just months ago.

Moreover, hospitals are explicitly protected under the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols.

Overnight visuals from local media showed flames engulfing a single-storey building, while thick smoke billowed from another section of the same complex.

Afghanistan Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman said all parts of the drug treatment hospital had been destroyed.

Local television stations posted footage showing firefighters struggling to extinguish flames among the ruins of a building.