Amnesty International has raised serious concerns about civilian casualties following Pakistan’s airstrike that hit a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul on March 16, calling for an independent investigation into the attack.
In a statement, the rights group said the March 16 strike, which Pakistani officials say targeted an ammunition depot, appeared to have caused significant civilian harm.
“While the total death toll from this attack has yet to be independently verified, it’s clear that it resulted in a significant number of deaths and injuries to civilians, at least in the hundreds,” said Isabelle Lassee, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for research.
The strike hit the Omid rehabilitation center, located within the former Camp Phoenix complex on the outskirts of Kabul — a site that Amnesty said has been used as a drug treatment facility since 2016 and was known to host large numbers of civilians.
Amnesty said Pakistan’s military should have taken all feasible precautions to avoid harming civilians and civilian infrastructure before carrying out the strike.
“Any reasonable assessment … would have concluded that the camp had a high civilian presence,” Lassee said.
The organization also questioned whether the attack met the requirements of proportionality under international humanitarian law, noting that even if a military target had been present, the expected civilian harm should have been carefully weighed.
“The scale of death and destruction raises serious concerns about whether the Pakistani military conducted an adequate proportionality assessment,” the statement said.
Amnesty called on Pakistani authorities to explain the intelligence and verification processes behind the strike and to carry out a “prompt, independent and impartial” investigation, with findings made public.
It also urged all parties involved in the conflict to adhere to international humanitarian law and to protect civilians and civilian facilities, including hospitals.
The airstrike is part of a broader escalation between Pakistani forces and Taliban, with cross-border clashes ongoing since February.
Taliban officials say the strike killed more than 400 people and wounded over 200 others. The United Nations has reported at least 143 deaths so far.
Prior to the latest incident, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan had documented at least 76 civilian casualties linked to the conflict.
