Pakistan rejects Taliban’s claim of drug rehab strike, calls it deliberate disinformation

Pakistan has rejected Afghanistan’s claims that the country struck a rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, killing 400 people and injuring 250 others.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoIB) took to X, terming the “misreporting of facts” as intended to “stir sentiments, covering illegitimate support to cross-border terrorism.”

The ministry thus rejected Afghanistan’s claims as being “false and misleading,” adding that on the night of March 16, “Pakistan precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban and Fitna al-Khawarij in Kabul and Nangarhar.”

MoIB added, “Post strike detonation of stored ammunition being used by Master Terror Proxy also fully contradicts the fake claim.”

Read: Precision strikes hit Taliban-linked sites in Kabul, Nangarhar

According to Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Taliban, the air strike took place at 9pm on Monday, targeting the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital.

Fitrat wrote that “large sections” of the 2,000-bed facility had been destroyed, with “serious concerns about a high number of casualties.” The spokesman stated that the death toll had reached 400, with 250 injured, adding that rescue teams were working to control the fire and recover remaining bodies.

MoIB, in response, tweeted that Omid Hospital was actually multiple kilometres away from Camp Phoenix, “the military terrorist ammunition and equipment storage site precisely targeted last night.” The ministry added, “It can also be well seen that the actual hospital is a multi-storied structure,” comparing it to the “military/terrorist infrastructure actually targeted.”

“The difference and lie is clear to see,” MoIB wrote. Further, it questioned, “Why would an alleged drug rehabilitation facility be co-located with lethal ammunition storage site in a military camp?”

Fitrat tweeted a picture of a crowd, saying, “Innocent civilians and addicts who were mostly killed last night at the 2,000-bed hospital due to the bombing by (Pakistani military circles).”

The information ministry responded by tweeting that the claim “circulated by the Afghan Taliban spokeperson using an old image to allege recent casualties is a clear case of deliberate disinformation.”

This, it added, was aimed at misleading public perception. MoIB added that the image that has been presented is from May 2023 and had been shared by the Afghan Taliban interior ministry of the time. This, it said, exposed the falsehood of current claims.

Also Read: China to continue mediation efforts between Pakistan, Afghanistan

“Recycling outdated visuals to support present-day allegations reflects a calculated attempt to fabricate a misleading narrative and create confusion regarding actual events,” MoIB wrote. It added that such actions “undermine credibility and highlight a pattern of information manipulation through misrepresentation of archival material as current evidence.”

The ministry concluded the tweet by saying that the Taliban regime’s claim is “rejected as false and deceptive, intended to distort facts, mislead audiences, and serve propaganda objectives by projecting a fabricated version of events.”

In yet another tweet, the information ministry attached pictures of the “Afghan official handle” deleting the first official post that claimed a drug rehab had been hit. It questioned whether the visuals were generated or AI that failed to stand being fact checked.

The development comes as Operation Ghazab Lil Haq, launched last month, continues following renewed clashes along the Pakistan–Afghanistan border. It was launched after Afghan Taliban forces fired on multiple locations, prompting swift military retaliation by Pakistan.

The neighbouring countries have been engaged in escalating hostilities along the frontier since then. The clashes intensified after Afghanistan launched a border offensive in response to earlier Pakistani air strikes targeting terrorist positions.