New Delhi: A day after Pakistan’s airstrike on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul, India on Tuesday (March 17) condemned the attack calling it “cowardly” and an “unconscionable act of violence”, as the Afghan government said at least 408 people had been killed and UN agencies called for accountability.

“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,” the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

The ministry added: “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.”

Underlining that this attack was carried out during the holy month of Ramzan, which is a time of peace, reflection, and mercy among Muslim communities across the world, the ministry said it is “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.”

Further, it called for the international community to hold the perpetrators of this “criminal act accountable” and ensure that the targeting by Pakistan of civilians in Afghanistan ceases without delay.

India extended its deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wished a swift recovery to those injured, and expressed solidarity with the people of Afghanistan. “We also reiterate our unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan,” the MEA said.

Residents of Kabul reported hearing loud explosions at around 8:50 pm local time on Monday, followed by the sound of aircraft and air defence systems, according to the BBC.

The strike hit the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, a state-run drug rehabilitation facility located within a former US military base near Kabul's international airport. The base, previously known as Camp Phoenix, was converted into a drug treatment centre after the Taliban came to power in 2021.

The Afghan health ministry's spokesman Sharafat Zaman told the BBC there were no military facilities near the rehabilitation centre.

The destroyed structure at the centre of the compound was a 180-foot-long building used for meals and prayer, according to the New York Times. Other adjacent structures, each housing 20 to 30 bunk beds, also caught fire. By Tuesday, bloodstained mattresses lay scattered among the debris as rescue workers and firefighters continued operations under the watch of armed Taliban personnel, as per the report.

The Afghan government, including foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, put the toll at 408 killed and 265 injured.

A BBC reporter at the scene saw more than 30 bodies carried out on stretchers on Monday evening. A Times reporter confirmed at least 75 bodies in body bags or coffins in ambulances shuttling through the night and into Tuesday morning.

A UN agency's initial assessment at the site found the "complete destruction" of one part of the facility, which housed about 180 adolescents, with "no survivors reported", according to the Times.

Jacopo Caridi, head of the Afghanistan office for the Norwegian Refugee Council, visited the site. "The numbers are in the hundreds," he told the Times. He said he had seen no military facilities in the immediate area.

Pakistan acknowledged carrying out strikes but denied targeting the hospital. Information minister Attaullah Tarar said Pakistan's armed forces "successfully carried out precision airstrikes on the night of 16 March, targeting Afghan Taliban regime terrorism sponsoring military installations in Kabul and Nangarhar," and that "technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities at two locations in Kabul were effectively destroyed."

Tarar also wrote that "all targeting has been done with precision only at those infrastructures which are being used by Afghan Taliban regime".

His ministry said the Omid Hospital was located multiple kilometres from its actual target and cited "visible secondary detonations" as proof the site held large ammunition stockpiles. It accused Afghan officials of "misreporting of facts" to cover what it called "illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism".

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's spokesman Mosharraf Zaidi separately said no hospital was targeted in Kabul.

Afghan foreign minister Muttaqi summoned the diplomatic corps in Kabul on Tuesday for a formal statement. He described the victims as people who "had become addicted to narcotics as a consequence of the hardships of the past two decades" and were undergoing government-supported treatment with international humanitarian assistance.

He said the attack proved that "the Pakistani military apparatus shows no regard for Islamic or humanitarian principles of warfare and deliberately targets civilian and humanitarian facilities with complete disregard for restraint".

Muttaqi said the strike came at a moment when China had initiated fresh mediation efforts, and that Kabul had made clear to Beijing that "dialogue and negotiations are only feasible when the other side ceases hostile actions and demonstrates genuine commitment to a solution through deeds". He said the attack confirmed that the “Pakistani military apparatus, which in reality holds Pakistan's entire decision-making process captive, shows no intention of pursuing any resolution".

He drew a direct parallel to the conflict in Gaza. "We once again witness atrocities, similar to those perpetrated by the Israeli regime against Gaza, being repeated with full cruelty by a Muslim neighbour," he said. He added that a previous Pakistani strike had also taken place while Saudi Arabia was engaged in active mediation.

Muttaqi stated that the Afghan government has “lost trust in Pakistan’s intentions regarding diplomatic solutions”. He warned that Afghan forces would continue "reciprocal, proportionate and legitimate defensive measures until the other side ceases its violations", while insisting that Kabul's own actions had been "conducted with great caution and focused solely on military targets". He said Kabul had communicated its position to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and China.

In a statement, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said that under international law "attacks on hospitals and civilian facilities are strictly prohibited". It called for an immediate ceasefire and “for parties to comply with their obligations under international law to ensure the protection of civilians”.

Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for an independent investigation and said those responsible must be "held to account in line with international standards". Since fighting escalated in late February, 289 Afghan civilians, including 104 children, had been killed or wounded and tens of thousands displaced, he said.

UN special rapporteur Richard Bennett said he was "dismayed" and urged both sides to "de-escalate, exercise maximum restraint and respect international law”.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at least six health facilities in Afghanistan had been affected by the hostilities since late February. "Peace is the best medicine," he wrote on X.

China on Tuesday called on both sides to reach a ceasefire and return to talks. Asked directly about Pakistan's strikes on Kabul, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Afghanistan and Pakistan "are and will always be each other's neighbour" and that "issues between the two countries can only be resolved through dialogue and negotiation".

He said China hoped "both sides will remain calm and exercise restraint, engage face to face as soon as possible, achieve a ceasefire at the earliest opportunity, and resolve differences and disputes through dialogue." He added that Beijing would "continue to play a constructive role in easing tensions and facilitating the improvement of relations between the two sides via its own channels".

Lin made no reference to the hospital strike or to civilian casualties in his remarks.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi had spoken to his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts by phone in the week before the attack.

The current conflict is the most severe fighting between the two neighbours in decades. Pakistan launched the initial airstrikes in late February, saying they targeted camps linked to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Islamic State-Khorasan Province, and declared it was in "open war" with Afghanistan.

Since then, Pakistan has launched dozens of airstrikes on Afghanistan's two largest cities and in border areas, hitting military infrastructure as well as civilian homes, refugee camps and health facilities, according to the UN.

Afghanistan retaliated by launching large-scale offensive operations and drone strikes on multiple Pakistani border positions along the Durand Line, then escalated with claimed drone strikes on military installations in Rawalpindi and Quetta. The fighting ended a ceasefire Qatar had brokered in October 2025.

This story was updated with more information at 3:03 am on Wednesday.

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