PNN: Pakistan on Tuesday rejected the Afghan Taliban claim of Pakistani forces striking a Kabul hospital, saying they used an old image to allege recent casualties in a clear case of deliberate disinformation aimed at misleading public perception.
“The claim circulated by an Afghan Taliban spokesperson using an old image to allege recent casualties is a clear case of deliberate disinformation aimed at misleading public perception,” said Pakistan’s ministry of information in a post on X on Tuesday.
It said the image being presented as evidence of a recent incident is in fact from May 2023 and was originally shared by the Afghan Taliban Interior Ministry at that time, exposing the falsehood of the current claim.
“Recycling outdated visuals to support present-day allegations reflects a calculated attempt to fabricate a misleading narrative and create confusion regarding actual events.
“Such actions undermine credibility and highlight a pattern of information manipulation through misrepresentation of archival material as current evidence.” “The claim is therefore rejected as false and deceptive, intended to distort facts, mislead audiences, and serve propaganda objectives by projecting a fabricated version of events.”
In a post, Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said that the Afghan Taliban regime is “peddling yet another falsehood by alleging that Pakistan targeted a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul. This claim is entirely baseless”. “Pakistan, in its ongoing war against terrorism, is engaging only those military and terrorist targets, along with the infrastructure of the Afghan Taliban regime, that are being directly or indirectly used to plan, facilitate, shelter, train, or abet terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. The strikes carried out on the night of 16 March 2026 in Kabul and Nangarhar were precise, deliberate, and professional. No hospital, no drug rehabilitation centre, and no civilian facility was targeted.”
Tarar said the targets were military and terrorist infrastructure, including ammunition and technical equipment storage sites and other installations linked to hostile activity against Pakistan.
As with established practice, all six strikes were promptly put out with video footage by MoIB, making the nature of the targets plain for all to see. “The visuals leave no room for doubt. The flames and secondary detonations witnessed in Kabul further confirm that the intended ammunition storage site was hit with precision. The current propaganda is coming from a regime whose officials have repeatedly relied on false narratives, doctored claims, selective deletions of earlier posts, and the circulation of old visuals to mislead audiences and cover up the truth. Their latest allegation is part of the same worn-out pattern of deceit.”
“Pakistan’s position is clear. We will continue to take every necessary measure to defend our citizens, degrade terrorist capability, and deny safe haven to those who wage terror against Pakistan from across the border.”
In a post on X earlier in the day, information minister Ataullah Tarar said the armed forces “successfully carried out precision airstrikes” as part of Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, targeting “Afghan Taliban regime terrorism-sponsoring military installations in Kabul and Nangarhar”. “All targeting has been done with precision only at those infrastructures which are being used by Afghan Taliban regime to support its multiple terror proxies, including Fitna Al Khawarij and Fitna Al Hindustan, as can be clearly seen in accompanied footage,” Tarar added, also sharing a video of the said strikes.