In a July 28 report on the human rights condition in Afghanistan, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) disclosed it had documented 499 civilian deaths and 1,216 wounded by conflict with its neighbor, Pakistan, between October 2025 and June 2026. 

On Friday, Pakistan’s military rejected the report’s claims about civilian casualties as “baseless”. Military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry defended the strikes, saying Pakistan had carried out operations in Kabul and elsewhere with precision, targeting military infrastructure supporting terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. Chaudhry said Pakistan had only targeted sites associated with the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and that those killed were militants. Chaudhry justified the strikes as defensive actions to protect Pakistanis, citing the 3,145 “terrorism incidents” recorded by Pakistan since January.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have exchanged intermittent strikes for months, starting in October 2025 when Pakistan struck terrorist targets in Kabul, Khost, Jalalabad, and Paktika targeting Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Tensions escalated sharply in February of this year when Afghan forces launched cross-border raids into Pakistan in retaliation for airstrikes. This attack prompted Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif to write, “Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.” The fighting that resulted killed hundreds and finally ended attempts to broker a ceasefire by Qatar and Turkey in October 2025. 

The most devastating incident during this period occurred on March 16th, when a Pakistani airstrike targeted the Omid Rehabilitation and Treatment Centre in Kabul, resulting in 269 civilian deaths and over 100 injuries according to UN reporting. Four months later, Amnesty International published a new investigation calling for the strike to be investigated as a possible war crime. Pakistan claimed the building was being used for military purposes. Amnesty International claims it found no evidence that the rehabilitation center was being used to store weapons and ammunition or for other military purposes at the time of the attack. Pakistani officials have also blamed drug addicts in Afghanistan for suicide bombings, with Sharif Chaudhry claiming, “Not every drug addict is a terrorist, but every suicide bomber was a drug addict”. The report concludes that “The air strikes violated the special protection afforded to healthcare facilities under international humanitarian law (IHL), as well as the principles of distinction, precaution and proportionality designed to protect civilians”.

The UNAMA report also included 22 deaths, including 5 children, and 185 injuries, which came from two successive strikes on a residential building in Paktia on June 28th. According to the Associated Press, most of the deaths and injuries were caused by the second strike, when locals were trying to rescue the victims of the first one. “International humanitarian law provides special protections for medical personnel and humanitarian workers, including first responders,” said Fiona Frazer, director of human rights at UNAMA. “Attacks against them while performing their duties are strictly prohibited.” This incident could also be investigated as a potential war crime.

Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of harboring militants responsible for terrorist attacks within Pakistan, especially the TTP, since the Afghan Taliban took power in 2021. The groups are separate, but have a strong alliance, despite Afghanistan’s denials that they have hosted any militants. While current relations have completely deteriorated, Pakistan had previously helped to create the Afghan Taliban, and prior to 2001, had provided the Taliban with advisors and equipment.

Defense Minister Asif said Pakistan had hoped that after the Taliban took over in 2021, the two countries would focus on the welfare of the Afghan people. Instead, he said, the Taliban had turned Afghanistan “into a colony of India”, referencing the recently improved relations between Afghanistan and India. India reopened its embassy in Kabul in 2022, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed an Afghan Taliban diplomatic delegation to New Delhi in October 2025, coinciding with the deterioration of Pakistan-Afghanistan relations. Asif blames the instigation of TTP attacks on this relationship.

Pakistani officials have complained that the UNAMA report is biased against Afghanistan and shows a double standard in war reporting, asking how many times rights groups had documented civilian casualties caused by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes during the war in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s actions also mirror US and Israeli strategy in attacking groups like HAMAS and Hezbollah. However, Pakistan must also be wary of following in the footsteps of US strategy in the Middle East, which only resulted in escalating violence and the radicalization of new – often, more extreme – groups.