ISLAMABAD: Amnesty International’s latest report largely mirrors the Afghan Taliban regime’s narrative regarding Pakistan’s precision strikes on March 16–17, based on credible intelligence, while overlooking critical operational evidence, security officials said.
When Pakistan struck a drone workshop and storage site inside Camp Phoenix, the barracks of the former Omid Centre were being used to house around 350 soldiers of the Taliban Army’s Qita Yarmuk, they said.
Camp Phoenix was a NATO military facility established in 2003. In 2010, the Omid Drug Rehabilitation Centre was set up within a section of the camp.
In 2016, a new Omid Hospital was established approximately 5.6 kilometres away (by air) and 20 kilometres by road from Camp Phoenix, after which the old Omid facility was closed.
Security officials said the target of the Pakistani strikes was not the barracks of the old Omid Centre but nearby drone storage workshops. They said the detonation of stored munitions caused a fire in the barracks of the old Omid Centre, resulting in casualties among soldiers of Qita Yarmuk.
Taliban regime exploited defunct Omid facility for propaganda purposes
According to the officials, the Taliban regime exploited the defunct Omid facility for propaganda purposes by claiming that civilians had been killed. They maintained that those killed in the secondary explosions were soldiers of Qita Yarmuk.
The officials said this explains the glaring discrepancies in the casualty figures. They noted that the Taliban regime initially claimed that 408 civilians had been killed and 165 injured, whereas United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) later reported 143 casualties without identifying them as civilians. They also said that funeral prayers for only 50 people were held in the days following the incident.
The security officials further alleged that Amnesty International is reproducing Taliban propaganda. They said the organisation neither has credible means to verify the Taliban’s claims nor the willingness to do so.
According to the officials, such baseless reports, divorced from the facts, encourage terrorists to embed themselves among civilian populations to avoid being targeted.
They further claimed that, encouraged by what they described as the civilian casualty narrative promoted by UNAMA and Amnesty International, the Taliban regime has already begun relocating its drone and sensitive ammunition storage sites into densely populated civilian areas.
Also Read: Fact Check: Site Targeted in Afghanistan Was Military Facility, not ‘Omid Hospital’
Pakistan rejects Taliban regime’s claims
Pakistan has already rejected the Afghan Taliban’s claims regarding the strikes. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoIB) took to X, terming the “misreporting of facts” as intended to “stir sentiments, covering illegitimate support to cross-border terrorism.”
The ministry thus rejected Afghanistan’s claims as being “false and misleading,” adding that on the night of March 16, “Pakistan precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure, including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban and Fitna al-Khawarij in Kabul and Nangarhar.”
🔎 Fact Check | Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
◼️ Omid Hospital being claimed to be hit by Afghan Taliban regime in the tweet is actually multiple kilometres away from Camp Phoenix, the military terrorist ammunition and equipment storage site precisely targeted last… pic.twitter.com/60hu3m2JZf
— Fact Checker MoIB (@FactCheckerMoIB) March 17, 2026
MoIB added, “Post-strike detonation of stored ammunition being used by Master Terror Proxy also fully contradicts the fake claim.”
It said that Omid Hospital was actually multiple kilometres away from Camp Phoenix, “the military terrorist ammunition and equipment storage site precisely targeted last night.” The ministry added, “It can also be well seen that the actual hospital is a multi-storied structure,” comparing it to the “military/terrorist infrastructure actually targeted.”
“The difference and lie is clear to see,” MoIB wrote. Further, it questioned, “Why would an alleged drug rehabilitation facility be co-located with a lethal ammunition storage site in a military camp?”
