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Amnesty: Deadly Pakistan Air Strikes on Kabul Drug Rehab Center a Possible War Crime

The human rights organization’s new report found “no evidence of Pakistan’s claims” that the site hit on March 16 was a military target.

Four months after calling on Pakistan’s authorities to explain how and why they targeted a Kabul drug rehabilitation center on March 16, killing at least 269 civilians, Amnesty International has published a new investigation calling for the attack to be investigated as a possible war crime. 

The organization found no evidence to support the Pakistan military’s claims that Omid Rehabilitation and Treatment Center was being used to store weapons and ammunition or for other military purposes at the time of the attack. The air strikes violated the special protection afforded to healthcare facilities under international humanitarian law, as well as the principles of distinction, precaution and proportionality designed to protect civilians.

“The attack on the Omid Center constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law – possibly amounting to a war crime. Given the widely available information that the site had been used as a medical facility for more than a decade, this reflects a major failure in military planning by Pakistan that led to a significant loss of civilian life,” said Isabelle Lassee, Amnesty International’s acting regional director for South Asia.

“This was a lethal failure by Pakistan to comply with its obligation to do everything feasible to verify whether the target was a military objective. Pakistan must urgently conduct a transparent, thorough, independent, and impartial investigation into the attack – especially the decision-making process that led to the targeting of the facility – and make the results public.

“Where sufficient evidence exists, competent authorities should prosecute any person suspected of criminal responsibility, including under the doctrine of command responsibility.”

The attack was one of a series of air strikes conducted by the Pakistan military inside Afghanistan since the escalation of cross-border hostilities with the Taliban in October 2025. Between January and March 2026 alone, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documented more than 750 civilian casualties, with 372 killed and 392 others injured in Afghanistan. The June 28 airstrikes in Paktya, Paktika, and Kunar provinces killed at least 28 civilians according to UNAMA. 

While there is no consolidated figure for civilian casualties in Pakistan, media reports indicate that at least seven civilians have been killed through mortar shelling originating from Afghanistan territories.

“All parties to the conflict must respect international humanitarian law and take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian objects, with particular care afforded to medical facilities and other specially protected sites. Failure to investigate serious violations, such as the attack on the Omid Center, shows an alarming disregard for international law and risks entrenching impunity, leading to further unlawful operations and loss of civilian life,” said Lassee.

Amnesty International analyzed and verified more than 60 photos and videos, most of which were captured in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the Omid Center, including videos released by Pakistan’s military to support its claim that the site was being used as a storage facility for weapons and ammunition. The organization also reviewed more than 30 satellite images of the area, as well as verified videos documenting the operations at the Omid Center prior to the attack.

Amnesty International conducted 11 interviews, including with employees and former employees of the Omid Center and the adjacent Ibn-e-Sina Hospital. Interviewees also included individuals who visited the center immediately after the attack and victims’ family members. Some of the interviewees witnessed the strikes, and some were also involved in the evacuation effort.

On July 9, Amnesty International contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan to request details about what the government has done to investigate any failure in targeting, and whether those involved in the process were held to account, including any information to substantiate their claim that the target was a “weapon and ammunition store.” No response had been received at the time of publication.

Prohibition of Attacks on Medical Facilities

The principle of distinction in international humanitarian law requires parties to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives. Deliberate attacks against healthcare facilities and on their personnel are specifically prohibited, unless a facility is being used outside its humanitarian function. When there is doubt as to whether medical facilities are being used to commit acts “harmful to the enemy” – the only case in which they could lose their protected status – they should be presumed not to be so used.

In a post on X the day after the strike, Attaulah Tarar, Pakistan’s federal minister for information and broadcasting, claimed that the Pakistan military had targeted: “technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities” in two locations in Kabul (one of them being the Omid Center). He also claimed that secondary detonations indicated that large ammunition depots were hit in the strikes.

Videos and photographs of bomb remnants shared directly with Amnesty International were analyzed by the organization’s weapons experts, who concluded that at least one of the munitions used was a Takbir precision-guided bomb. This finding is consistent with statements by the Pakistani military that precision-guided munitions were used in the strike, suggesting that the attack was the result of a deliberate targeting decision.

The Omid Center was established in 2016 on the site of a former NATO base. It originally operated as a vocational training facility for people being treated for substance dependence. After the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the site was expanded into a 2,000-bed treatment center for people with drug-dependence problems. Ibn-e-Sina Hospital, which provided essential healthcare services to Omid Center patients, is also located on the site.

There is a wide range of publicly available information on the Omid Center’s work, including a 2023 Al Jazeera documentary showing patients undergoing treatment at the center.

Amnesty International identified at least two large in-local-language signboards, located above........

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