Residents and rescue workers inspect the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 17, 2026
| Photo Credit: AP
ndia on Tuesday (March 17, 2026) “unequivocally” condemned Pakistan’s bombing of Omid Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital in Afghanistan capital Kabul on the night of March 16 terming it “barbaric” and “unconscionable”.
The remarks from the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came hours after the bombing that marked an escalation in the ongoing conflict between Pakistan and the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The Taliban administration in Kabul had described the attack on the drug rehabilitation centre as a violation of Afghan airspace and revealed that the bombing led to the death of around 400 individuals who were seeking treatment in the facility.
‘Externalising internal failures’
“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,” said Randhir Jaiswal, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.
The Omid Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital is a former U.S. military base that has been converted into a drug addiction treatment centre for Afghanistan’s drug addicts. The military base was taken over by the Taliban and converted into a rudimentary care centre for large number of Afghanistan’s drug addicts, after the end of the Ashraf Ghani government in August 2021.
According to Khaama Press of Afghanistan, the Pakistan Air Force has continued bombing across Afghanistan over the past two days and apart from the Omid Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul, it has also bombed targets in Nangarhar province including Achin, Shinwari districts and the Jalalabad airport. Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman of the Taliban administration, said, “Pakistani military regime has once again violated Afghanistan’s airspace and targeted a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul resulting in the death and injury of addicts who were undergoing treatment.”
Responding to the incident, which marks the largest number of civilian deaths in a single airstrike since the conflict flared up last year between the two sides, Mr. Jaiswal said: “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 has claimed that the hospital was serving as an arms and ammunition depot. Responding to this, the Ministry of External Affairs said Pakistan is now trying to “dress up a massacre as a miliary operation”.
Published – March 17, 2026 12:39 pm IST
