Pakan vs Afghanan: Here are the key developments since the ‘open war’ broke | World News

3 min readMar 17, 2026 03:03 PM Taliban-ruled Afghanan on Monday night said at least 400 people were killed and 250 were injured in a Pakani airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul.
Deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said that the strike destroyed large portions of the 2,000-bed facility, adding that the rescue operation was underway and the teams were working to recover the bodies.
Calling the strikes a violation of its sovereignty, the Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack and accused Pakan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors”.

Here are the key developments since the ‘open war’ broke:
– ‘Strikes precisely targeted military installations,’ says Pak: Pakan’s Minry of Information said the strikes “precisely targeted military installations and terror support infrastructure, including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban” and Afghanan-based Pakani militants in Kabul and Nangarhar. Islamabad alleged that the facilities were being used against innocent Pakani civilians and said Pakan’s strikes were “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted”.
– India slams Pakan: India condemned Pakan’s attack as “barbaric” and a “heinous act of aggression” that blatantly violates Afghanan’s sovereignty. In a sharply-worded statement, the Minry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “India unequivocally condemns Pakan’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 no means be justified as a military target. Pakan is now trying to dress up a massacre as a military operation.”
 
– Afghanan Cricket Board condemns violence: The Afghanan Cricket Board, as well as the players and officials, condemned the Pakani strike and expressed solidarity with victims and their families.Story continues below this ad
– Pakan denies targeting civilians: Pakan rejected Afghanan’s accusations of targeting civilians, stating that its airstrikes did not hit any civilian infrastructure. Prime Miner Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesperson Mosharraf Zaidi termed the claims “baseless,” while Information Miner Attaullah Tarar said “precision airstrikes” targeted military installations in Kabul and Nangarhar.
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