DG ISPR rubbishes 'ridiculous' Afghan claim of targeting drug rehab centre, says Pakistan hit ammo storage site

Raises questions on location of drug centre near ammo storage depot, says war imposed on Pakistan by terrorists

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry on Wednesday rubbished what he said was the "ridiculous" claim of Pakistan targeting a drug rehabilitation centre in Afghanistan, saying that the military had targeted an ammunition storage depot.

On Tuesday, the Taliban regime's deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat claimed in a post on X that an airstrike had hit the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, killing up to 400 people in the Afghan capital overnight. However, Pakistan forcefully rejected the Afghan Taliban’s claims, terming the allegations “entirely baseless” and part of a wider pattern of misinformation aimed at distorting facts.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar had said the strikes carried out were “precise, deliberate and professional”, targeting only military and terrorist infrastructure linked to attacks inside Pakistan. Meanwhile, ​an official told Reuters today that the United Nations Assistance Mission ​in Afghanistan has ‌put the death toll in the alleged incident at 143.

Addressing the matter today while speaking in an interview on private television programme 'Capital Talk', the military spokesperson said: "They're saying that there was some drug rehabilitation centre there. Someone ask them why have you made a drug rehab centre in the middle of an ammunition storage. Which hospital in the world is there that is made beside an ammo storage where you have kept missiles and ammunition. Why was it made? because it was never there."

He questioned who could make such a structure.

The DG ISPR said there was a military camp and a drone storage site in Kabul, which had been targeted. "We hit the pinpoint location. The clip is still available, and the whole world saw secondary detonations because our intelligence was accurate and we struck an ammunition storage, which exploded," he said.

“When the ammunition exploded, people across Kabul saw flames rising, which lasted for some time because it was the ammunition,” he added, saying there were Soviet-era scud missiles and other stored ammunition that was destroyed.

Rejecting claims of civilian casualties, he said Pakistan had used precision-guided munitions rather than general-purpose bombs. “We are being very careful. We used PGMs directly on terrorist support infrastructure, and that is exactly what we used there,” he said.

The DG ISPR further asked: “Who is making these claims? It is the Taliban regime, which, 10 days ago, even claimed a Pakistani pilot was targeted while in civilian clothes. The same account that makes these claims posts this, and then deletes it,” he added, noting that their lack of credibility was well known. “The world knows they are discredited and dishonest,” he said.

He said that the Afghan Taliban regime rounded up all drug addicts when it came to power and kept them at the rehab centre, saying the regime used these addicts for terrorism and suicide bombings. He added that all suicide bombers who had carried out attacks in Pakistan were drug addicts. “There is a fact the world must know: while all drug addicts are not suicide bombers, all suicide bombers are terrorists,” the DG ISPR said.

“So the structure that was there, which was not our target, had stored materials. The secondary detonations caused the fire and the damage. That was a military-contained structure, which may have housed suicide bombers in training, or terrorists hidden there, or Afghan Taliban or so-called militia members. I don’t know exactly what they had stored,” he added

The DG ISPR said that while it was not the target, if drug addicts were present, it reflected old tactics of using them for suicide bombings, so it may have been a facility related to such activities.

When asked about international media claims of civilian casualties in the recent attack, the spokesperson said it must be understood that such distinctions existed in Afghanistan under the Afghan Taliban regime. “When our posts are attacked, some attackers wear uniforms, some wear Afghan Taliban military uniforms, while others, fighting alongside them, are in civilian clothes,” he said, questioning who they were and whether they could be considered civilians.

The military spokeperson added that Afghanistan was not a state like any other. “It is a territory under the control of the Afghan Taliban, a terrorist organisation, and a master terror proxy under which other groups operate,” he said, quoting a United Nations report which stated that 22 terrorist organisations were operating in Afghanistan.

“Every child in Pakistan knows that India is behind this terrorism, using Afghanistan as its base of operations. It is Indian-sponsored, funded terrorism whose base of operations is Afghanistan,” the DG ISPR said.

He said that in every terrorism-related incident in Pakistan, Afghanistan was used as the base of operations.

Providing details of incidents in which terrorists carried out attacks on Pakistan from Afghanistan, he said that on the blessed day of Friday, an attack was carried out in Tarlai in which worshippers were martyred, adding that the attacker had come from Afghanistan where he had received training and preparation.

He added that attacks were carried out in Wana and Bannu, targeting mosques, police and civilians, and said all attackers were coming from Afghanistan.

Questioning where the leaders of these terrorists were, he said they were being sheltered in Afghanistan.

He rejected the notion that Pakistan had imposed any war on Afghanistan, saying the war on terror had been imposed on Pakistan and that thousands of its citizens had been killed with the country fighting the war for decades. He said no other country in the world had fought a war against terrorism the way Pakistan, its people and its security forces had.

The DG ISPR clarified that Pakistan had no issues with the people of Afghanistan, describing them as "brothers and sisters", and said they themselves were victims of the same group.

“They themselves are victims of their oppression, they themselves are under these warlords, who have imposed this war, who have no connection with Islam, they are on their mercy, they themselves are living under them,” he said.

He said that Pakistani forces targeted “terrorist hideouts” along the Pakistan-Afghan border last month. “We did not target Afghans; we targeted terrorists,” DG Chaudhry stressed.

The military spokesperson said that forces of the Afghan government subsequently struck Pakistani posts at 53 locations. “They started it by attacking Pakistan along the border at regular posts, and this is our response,” he added, referring to Operation Ghazab Lil Haq, which has now been temporarily paused.

The DG ISPR said Ghazab Lil Haq was not a standalone operation but part of Pakistan’s ongoing war against terrorism, adding that the country was fighting a war imposed by terrorists and their sponsors.

He said that when the Afghan Taliban struck at 53 locations, Pakistan began striking them inside their country, adding that everyone must understand the neighbouring regime had initiated the conflict. "We responded and now we are going to take them to task," the military spokesperson added.

The DG ISPR said that Pakistan had so far carried out airstrikes at 81 locations, adding that all these strikes were targeted against terrorist support infrastructure.

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