People say that Director General [DG] of Pakistan army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR] Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhary gets memed so often on social media because he invariably tends to get aggressive and go overboard while issuing statements. But then, what other option does a person [who more often than not] has to defend the indefensible, have?

During his interview to a private TV channel last Wednesday, Lt Gen Chaudhary sought to defend the bombing of Kabul’s Omid Hospital, a 2000-bed drug de-addiction and rehabilitation center by the Pakistan Air Force in which 408 people were killed and 265 injured. However, rather than providing convincing answers, he ended up creating further doubts regarding this attack in the minds of many.

Omid Hospital: a Rehab Center or Military Facility?

According to DGISPR, Pakistan had targeted a military camp and drone site on March 16 in Kabul, and not a hospital, citing “secondary detonations” as proof of stored ammunition exploding to buttress his claim. Then he turned aggressive and demanded that “Someone [should] ask them why have you made a drug rehab centre in the middle of an ammunition storage. Which hospital in the world is there that is made beside ammo [ammunition] storage where you have kept missiles and ammunition.”

However, Reuters has reported witnesses saying that they heard three bombs exploding just as people in the rehab centre were completing ⁠evening prayers, and that two of them struck rooms and patient areas. Details provided by independent agencies that visited the targeted site soon after the attack also contradict DGISPR’s account. 

In its statement, the Norwegian Refugee Council has mentioned that “We visited the........

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