Amnesty Ignores Taliban's Military Camp Rehab Centre as Pakistan Releases Strike Footage

ISLAMABAD - Amnesty International's call for a war crimes investigation into Pakistan's March 16 airstrike on Kabul ignores a critical fact: the Omid Rehabilitation Centre was built inside a former military camp and located next to an ammunition depot .

While Amnesty claims the facility was a protected medical site, Pakistani officials have consistently maintained that the target was Camp Phoenix-a "military terrorist ammunition and equipment storage site" . The Information Ministry noted that Omid Hospital was miles away from the actual target, and that visible secondary detonations after the strike confirmed the presence of large ammunition depots .

If Pakistan Had Anything to Hide, We Would Not Have Released Strike Footage Within Hours

Pakistan released footage of the strikes within hours of the operation-a level of transparency that speaks for itself . The airstrikes were conducted as part of Operation Ghazab Lil Haq to dismantle Indian-sponsored proxy terrorist networks operating from Afghan soil .

According to Pakistan's military and civilian leadership, the strikes targeted drone storage facilities, technical support infrastructure, and ammunition sites used by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Fitna al-Khawarij-groups Pakistan has identified as Indian proxies . Intelligence assessments confirm that these networks, backed by India's RAW, have been using Afghan sanctuaries to plan and execute cross-border attacks against Pakistani civilians and security forces .

Pakistani Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad told the UN Security Council: "It must be discomforting for India to see its terrorist infrastructure being dismantled and destroyed in Afghanistan by Pakistan's valiant security forces, who will continue to do whatever is necessary for our self-defence" .

Amnesty's Credibility Gap

Amnesty's report relies on Taliban-provided witness accounts and satellite imagery, ignoring that the facility was embedded within a militarized zone-a former NATO base where the Taliban housed ammunition and militant infrastructure . The organization also overlooks that Pakistan's strikes were precise, deliberate, and professional, targeting only military infrastructure .

No one is questioning the Taliban's role in placing a civilian facility next to an ammunition depot-a violation of international humanitarian law's prohibition on using civilian sites for military purposes. If the Omid Centre was genuinely a protected medical facility, why was it co-located with lethal munitions inside a military compound? .

Pakistan remains committed to counterterrorism operations until all Indian-sponsored proxy networks are eliminated from the region.