Amnesty International has called for a war crimes investigation into a Pakistani airstrike that struck a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul in March, saying the attack killed at least 269 civilians and unlawfully targeted a protected medical facility.
In a report released nearly five months after the March 16 strike, the rights group said it found no evidence to support Pakistan’s claim that the Omid Rehabilitation and Treatment Center was being used to store weapons or ammunition or served any military purpose at the time of the attack.
“The attack on the Omid Centre constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law — possibly amounting to a war crime,” Isabelle Lassee, Amnesty International’s acting regional director for South Asia, said in the report. She said Pakistan had failed to verify whether the facility was a legitimate military objective before carrying out the strike.
Amnesty said its investigation analyzed more than 60 photographs and videos, over 30 satellite images, weapons remnants and publicly available footage, and included interviews with 11 witnesses, among them current and former employees of the rehabilitation center and the adjacent Ibn-e-Sina Hospital, relatives of victims and people involved in rescue efforts. The organization said none of the evidence supported Pakistan’s assertion that the site was being used for military purposes.
The report said the Omid center, established in 2016 and expanded after the Taliban returned to power in 2021 into a 2,000-bed addiction treatment facility, had been widely identified as a medical center. Amnesty said publicly available information, including signage, satellite imagery and previous media coverage, should have made its civilian status clear.
The organization also said there was no indication that Pakistan issued any warning before the strike, despite the protections afforded to medical facilities under international humanitarian law. It said available footage showed no evidence of secondary explosions that would indicate the presence of ammunition depots, contradicting Pakistan’s public claims.
Amnesty called on Pakistan to conduct a prompt, independent, impartial and transparent investigation into the attack and to make its findings public. Where sufficient evidence exists, those responsible should be prosecuted, including under the doctrine of command responsibility, the organization said.
Pakistan has not publicly responded to Amnesty’s findings. The organization said it sought information from Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry on July 9 but had received no reply by the time the report was published.
Pakistan has consistently denied targeting civilians in cross-border strikes, saying its operations are directed at militant infrastructure inside Afghanistan.
The report comes amid growing international scrutiny of Pakistan’s military operations. According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), more than 750 civilians were killed or injured in Afghanistan between January and March this year. UNAMA has also documented civilian casualties from subsequent Pakistani airstrikes, including an attack in Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces in late June that killed at least 28 civilians and injured 49 others.
