Fresh embarrassment for Munir as Amnesty dubs Pak attack on Kabul hospital as ‘war crime’ | Gravitas

Four months ago, Pakistani army chief Asim Munir’s forces crossed all limits in its war with Afghanistan by bombing Kabul’s Omid addiction treatment hospital. Now, calls are growing for Pakistan’s nefarious role in this humanitarian catastrophe to be investigated as a ‘war crime’.

Let’s jog your memory back to March 16.

At around 9 pm local time, thick smoke blanketed the area around the Kabul hospital, which catered to people with drug-dependence problems.

Visuals showed a spate of destruction after Pakistan’s air strikes. Firefighters scrambled to douse the blaze.

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Buildings on the site were reduced to rubble. Distraught people were seen searching for their loved ones. The human toll of Pakistan’s air strikes was huge.

While Taliban stated that about 400 people were killed, the UN assistance mission in Afghanistan independently verified the killing of at least 269 civilians, whereas 122 others were wounded.

Now, what did the Amnesty investigation find?

It confirmed that the hospital was built in 2016, on the site of a former NATO base.

While it originally operated as a vocational training facility for people being treated for substance dependence, it was expanded into a 2,000-bed treatment centre after Taliban seized power in 2021.

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After analysing over 60 photos and videos and reviewing more than 30 satellite images, Amnesty rejected Pakistan’s claim that the site was used as a storage facility for weapons and ammunition.

Speaking to eyewitnesses, it ascertained that over a thousand patients were housed in this hospital.

Three locations, including a dining hall, kitchen and the place where patients lived, were also reportedly destroyed in Pakistan’s air strikes.

Most importantly, Amnesty questioned the timing of the attack, which gave no chance for civilians to escape.

According to this NGO, Pakistan’s airstrikes were against international humanitarian law, which accorded special protection to healthcare facilities.

Stressing that this attack amounted to a war crime, Amnesty called for an impartial probe and the guilty to be punished.

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Previously, the UN also called for a swift and independent investigation into Pakistan’s dastardly attack.

Although both nations agreed to a ceasefire in October 2025, the truce ended in February this year after Pakistan conducted air strikes in Afghanistan.

Pakistan continues to target innocent civilians.

In June-end, Munir’s forces killed at least 36 civilians with fresh air strikes on the three eastern provinces of Paktika, Kunar, and Paktia.

Subsequently, Afghanistan claimed to have conducted air strikes in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

In the first three months of 2026, the UN documented the killing of 372 Afghan civilians and injuries to 397 others due to Pakistan’s attacks.

The latest report just goes to expose Pakistan’s real face on the global stage yet again, amid its farcical attempt to emerge as a ‘peacemaker’.