Kabul, Afghanistan : In the wake of escalating cross-border tensions, Hamdullah Fitrat, Deputy Spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban government), has publicly shared a statement and a list of 492 individuals on his official X account.
The list confirms that these persons—former patients or residents at the Omid Drug Rehabilitation Center in Kabul, are alive, safe, and have been relocated to secure locations following a reported incident at the facility.
The release comes amid sharply conflicting narratives surrounding an alleged airstrike on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital (a 2,000-bed state-run drug rehabilitation facility) late on March 16, 2026.
Taliban officials, including Fitrat, initially claimed the strike attributed to Pakistani forces resulted in at least 400 deaths and around 250 injuries, with large sections of the center destroyed and rescue operations ongoing.
Key points from the latest development:
- The published list of 492 individuals makes no mention of any fatalities or missing persons, nor does it include names of those reportedly killed or injured in Taliban claims.
- Questions arise regarding the discrepancy: If 492 patients/residents are confirmed safe and relocated, it remains unclear who exactly comprises the reported 400+ killed and 250 injured figures.
- The Omid Center, originally a former NATO training base repurposed for drug rehabilitation (and at times used for detention), has been described as a relatively small-to-medium facility with a designed capacity of around 2,000 beds—though reports indicate it has at times housed significantly more due to mass roundups of drug users. Skeptics question how such a site could simultaneously account for hundreds of confirmed safe relocations and hundreds of claimed casualties.
- Pakistani authorities have consistently rejected the allegations, describing them as “false and misleading propaganda,” and insisting that any military actions targeted only militant infrastructure and terrorist hideouts, not civilian or medical facilities.
This development has fueled debate over the accuracy of casualty figures and potential exaggeration for political purposes amid the ongoing Pakistan-Afghanistan border conflict.
Independent verification of the list, casualty claims, and the facility’s actual status remains limited due to restricted access and the fluid security situation.
Further updates are awaited from official sources on both sides, international observers, and humanitarian organizations.
