Pakistan's information minister Attaullah Tarar rejected Taliban government claims on Tuesday that the military deliberately targeted a Kabul drug rehabilitation centre, calling them "entirely baseless".

Tarar wrote on X that Pakistan conducted six "precise, deliberate and professional" strikes on Monday night in Kabul and the eastern border province of Nangarhar as part of Islamabad's "ongoing war against terrorism" to stop militant attacks inside Pakistan.

"No hospital, no drug rehabilitation centre, and no civilian facility was targeted. The targets were military and terrorist infrastructure, including ammunition and technical equipment storage sites and other installations linked to hostile activity against Pakistan," he added.

The Afghan government on Tuesday said that about 400 people were killed in a Pakistani airstrike on a drug rehabilitation centre in the capital, Kabul, in the deadliest attack in the recent violence between the two neighbours.

Hundreds more were said to have been wounded at the facility, which was hit on Monday night, flattening buildings used to treat people from across the country for addictions to marijuana, amphetamines and other narcotics.

There was no immediate independent verification of the toll but AFP reporters saw at least 30 bodies taken from the site in the chaotic and smouldering aftermath of the attack on Monday night.

They then saw more than 65 removed on Tuesday as rescuers picked through the rubble in the search for victims and survivors.

"The toll is not final as the rescue operation is still going on but we have around 400 martyrs and more than 200 wounded," said interior ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman, calling the strike "against the Geneva Convention and all international laws.

Ahmad, 50, watched flames engulf his friends at a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul where he was undergoing treatment, unable to save them as they cried for help after a Pakistani air strike, leaving a scene he said resembled "doomsday". 

The Afghan Taliban government says at least 400 people were killed and 250 injured in the Monday night attack, but Islamabad denied having targeted any such facility, saying it had struck military installations and "terrorist support infrastructure".

The strike is the latest in a bitter conflict between the two Islamic nations that has flared during the holy month of Ramadan. 

Ahmad, who also volunteered as a guard at the hospital and gave only one name, said he and his 25 roommates had gathered in their dormitory after prayers when the attack occurred. He was the only survivor among them. 

"The whole place caught fire. It was like doomsday," he said. 

Mohammad Mian, who works in the radiology department of the hospital, said many young people under treatment lived in large containers on the campus and very few survived the strike.

"It was extremely terrifying," he said. "Those who survived were the ones whose rooms were not destroyed and were fortunate. But the places where the bombs were dropped, everyone there was killed."

Pakistan has been the Afghan Taliban's closest friend for decades. It was Islamabad that helped give birth to the Taliban in the early 1990s - as a way to give Pakistan "strategic depth" in its rivalry with India. What's gone wrong?

India has condemned Pakistan's airstrikes on a hospital in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, calling the attack a "barbaric" and "cowardly" act of violence.

Pakistan welcomed the return to power of the Taliban in 2021, with then-Prime Minister Imran Khan saying that Afghans had "broken the shackles of slavery". 

But Islamabad soon found that the Taliban were not as cooperative as it had hoped.

Islamabad says that the leadership of militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and many of its fighters are based in Afghanistan, and that armed insurgents seeking independence for the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan also use Afghanistan as a safe haven.

Militancy has increased every year since 2022 with attacks by the TTP and Baloch insurgents growing, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, a global monitoring organization.

Kabul for its part has repeatedly denied allowing militants to use Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan. 

The Afghan Taliban say Pakistan harbours fighters from its enemy, Islamic State, a charge Islamabad denies.

Islamabad says the ceasefire did not hold long due to continued militant attacks in Pakistan from Afghanistan, and there have been repeated clashes and border closures since then that have disrupted trade and movement along the rugged frontier. 

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has declared that there was “no more diplomacy or talks" with Pakistan and that the Taliban would instead seek retaliation.

Mujahid said Taliban would avenge those killed in the strikes and warned that continued attacks would have consequences. 

"Brutal attack, a crime against humanity": Suhail Shaheen, Taliban spokesperson, speaks to NDTV, hits out at Pakistan over attack on Kabul hospital which killed 400.

#NDTVExclusive | "Brutal attack, a crime against humanity" : Suhail Shaheen (@suhailshaheen1), Taliban spokesperson speaks to NDTV's @NewshoundArjun, hits out at Pakistan over attack on Kabul hospital which killed 400 pic.twitter.com/bkXZwGZc9q

— NDTV (@ndtv) March 17, 2026

UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett reacted to reports of Pakistani strikes in Kabul and said, "Dismayed by fresh reports of Pakistan's airstrikes in Afghanistan and resulting civilian casualties. My condolences. I urge parties to de-escalate, exercise maximum restraint and respect international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals."

Afghanistan cricketer Wafadar Momand condemned the Pakistani strikes in a social media post. He wrote that a hospital is a place meant to save human lives, and blood should not be shed there.

He added that attacking such a place is a major crime against humanity, ethics, and all human values.

Afghanistan cricket player Naveen-ul-Haq called the Pakistani attack on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul similar to Israel’s attacks on Gaza. “Hard to find any difference between Israel and Pakistani regime period," he said in a social media post.

Afghanistan cricket team player Mohammad Nabi has expressed concern over Pakistan’s attack on Kabul last night.

According to Tolo News, Nabi said: “Mothers waited at the gates, calling their sons’ names. On the 28th night of Ramadan, their lives were cut short.”

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson of Taliban posted an image on X and said, "These are the innocent civilians and drug addicts who were martyred last night at the 2,000-bed hospital as a result of bombardment by (Pakistan’s military circles), most of whom were martyred.”

An Afghan Taliban spokesperson said that 400 people were killed and 250 injured in the strike on a Kabul hospital.

Hundreds of people were reportedly killed or injured at a drug treatment centre in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, after an airstrike that the Taliban government blamed on Pakistan.

I am deeply saddened by the latest reports of civilian casualties as a result of Pakistani airstrikes in Kabul. Targeting civilian homes, educational facilities or medical infrastructure, either intentional or by mistake, is a war crime. The sheer disregard for human lives,… pic.twitter.com/DbFRRh2qAJ

— Rashid Khan (@rashidkhan_19) March 16, 2026

Former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the Kabul hospital attack carried out by Pakistani air forces.

 He warned the military rulers of Pakistan that continuing these attacks will not only fail to achieve their objectives but will also lead to a worsening of the situation to the detriment of their own country.

حامد کرزی، رئیس‌جمهور پیشین، بمباران شدید و سنگین امشب را، که توسط قوای هوایی پاکستان بر محلات مسکونی و اماکن غیرنظامی به‌شمول مراکز درمانی در شهر کابل، پایتخت کشور عزیز ما صورت گرفت و باعث تلفات و خسارات جانی و مالی بر مردم ملکی گردید، با شدیدترین الفاظ محکوم می‌نماید و به…

— Hamid Karzai (@KarzaiH) March 16, 2026

کابل#شهداءلیلةالقدر pic.twitter.com/bc77mhSzPL

— Hamdullah Fitratحمدالله فطرت (@FitratHamd) March 16, 2026

The Pakistani military regime carried out an airstrike at approximately 9:00 PM this evening on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, a 2,000-bed facility dedicated to the treatment of drug addiction. As a result of the attack, large sections of the hospital have been destroyed,…

— Hamdullah Fitratحمدالله فطرت (@FitratHamd) March 16, 2026

Heavy casualties were feared on Tuesday after Afghanistan accused Pakistan of hitting a treatment centre for drug addicts in the capital, Kabul, and killing civilians.

Pakistan denied deliberately targeting the facility, instead saying it had conducted precision strikes on "military installations and terrorist support infrastructure".

The Pakistani military has struck Kabul several times in recent weeks, as part of a conflict sparked by claims that the Taliban government has harboured extremists who have carried out attacks across the border.

Loud explosions rocked the city at 9:00 pm local time (1630 GMT) on Monday, prompting return anti-aircraft fire and forcing locals to run for cover in panic as they were out and about after breaking their daily Ramadan fast.