{"id":5509,"date":"2026-03-17T23:36:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/pakistan-denies-hospital-strike-in-afghanistan-as-death-toll-hits-400\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T23:36:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:36:32","slug":"pakistan-denies-hospital-strike-in-afghanistan-as-death-toll-hits-400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/pakistan-denies-hospital-strike-in-afghanistan-as-death-toll-hits-400\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan denies hospital strike in Afghanistan as death toll hits 400"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Pakistani minister \u2018strongly refutes and rejects\u2019 Afghan government\u2019s accusation, saying his country only targets military sites.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Islamabad has denied the accusations of Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban government that Pakistani forces hit a hospital treating drug users in the Afghan capital, Kabul, saying that its strikes in the neighbouring country have avoided civilian sites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe strongly refute and reject these allegations,\u201d Pakistani Minister of Information Attaullah Tarar told Al Jazeera Arabic on Tuesday. \u201cPakistan has only targeted terrorist infrastructure and military locations.\u201d<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/3\/17\/afghanistan-accuses-pakistan-of-air-strike-on-drug-rehab-centre\">Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of air strike on drug rehab centre<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/17\/families-search-for-loved-ones-after-deadly-pakistan-strikes-on-kabul-rehab\">Families search for loved ones after deadly Pakistan strike on Kabul rehab<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/gallery\/2026\/3\/17\/rescue-teams-recover-bodies-after-deadly-kabul-hospital-air-strike\">Photos: Rescue teams recover bodies after deadly Kabul hospital air strike<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>On Monday, Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban government, said Pakistan\u2019s military struck Kabul\u2019s Omar Addiction Treatment Hospital at about 9pm local time (16:30 GMT).<\/p>\n<p>The hospital is a 2,000-bed facility, and the raid destroyed large sections of the building, he wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, the death toll has so far reached 400, while around 250 others have been reported injured. Rescue teams are currently at the scene, working to control the fire and recover the remaining bodies of the victims,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>In a series of posts on X, Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid denounced the assault as a \u201ccrime against humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He accused the Pakistani military of intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure to \u201cperpetrate horrors\u201d, later saying that those killed and injured in the strike were patients receiving treatment at the facility.<\/p>\n<p>The latest wave of violence between the two countries began late last month, with repeated cross-border clashes and Pakistan\u2019s air strikes inside Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan often accuses Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban government of providing safe haven to the Pakistan Taliban, also known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, as well as to outlawed Baloch separatist groups and other groups who frequently target security forces and civilians across Pakistan. Kabul denies these claims.<\/p>\n<p>A United Nations Security Council resolution, adopted unanimously on Monday, did not name Pakistan, but condemned \u201cin the strongest terms all terrorist activity including terrorist attacks\u201d from within Afghanistan. The resolution also extended the UN political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for three months.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, the World Food Programme (WFP) said it had begun mobilising to provide \u201cimmediate lifesaving food\u201d to more than 20,000 families that have been displaced in Afghanistan due to the conflict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistani minister \u2018strongly refutes and rejects\u2019 Afghan government\u2019s accusation, saying his country only targets military sites. Islamabad has denied the accusations of Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban government that Pakistani forces hit a hospital treating drug users in the Afghan capital, Kabul, saying that its strikes in the neighbouring country have avoided civilian sites. \u201cWe strongly refute and &#8230; <a title=\"Pakistan denies hospital strike in Afghanistan as death toll hits 400\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/pakistan-denies-hospital-strike-in-afghanistan-as-death-toll-hits-400\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Pakistan denies hospital strike in Afghanistan as death toll hits 400\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}