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3 min readNew DelhiMar 17, 2026 12:48 PM IST
Firefighters work at the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo)
After Taliban-ruled Afghanistan said at least 400 were killed in a Pakistani airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, India Tuesday condemned the attack as “barbaric” and a “heinous act of aggression” that blatantly violates Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
A Taliban government spokesperson said at least 400 people were killed and 250 were injured in an air strike by Pakistan on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul. Pakistan rejected the claim as false and misleading and said it “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” on Monday night.
In a sharply-worded statement, the Ministry of External Affairs’s official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “India unequivocally condemns Pakistan’s barbaric airstrike on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul on the night of March 16. This is a cowardly and unconscionable act of violence that has claimed the lives of a large number of civilians in a facility which can by no means be justified as a military target. Pakistan is now trying to dress up a massacre as a military operation.”
“This heinous act of aggression by Pakistan is also a blatant assault on Afghanistan’s sovereignty and a direct threat to regional peace and stability. It reflects Pakistan’s persistent pattern of reckless behaviour and its repeated attempts to externalise internal failures through increasingly desperate acts of violence beyond its borders,” he said.
“That this attack was carried out during the holy month of Ramzan, a time of peace, reflection, and mercy among Muslim communities across the world, makes it all the more reprehensible. There is no faith, no law, and no morality that can justify the deliberate targeting of a hospital and its patients,” the MEA spokesperson said.
Jaiswal said that the international community must hold the perpetrators of this criminal act accountable and ensure that the wanton targeting by Pakistan of civilians in Afghanistan ceases without delay.
“India extends its deepest condolences to the bereaved families, wishes a swift recovery to those injured, and stands in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan in this tragic moment. We also reiterate our unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan,” he said.
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Afghanistan called the strikes a violation of its sovereignty that targeted civilians and launched its own attacks. Islamabad said Kabul provides a safe haven to militants launching attacks on Pakistan. The Taliban deny the allegation, saying tackling militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, said he was “dismayed” by fresh reports of Pakistani air strikes and resulting civilian deaths.
Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More
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