KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called for impartial investigations into “possible war crimes” linked to Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan, citing repeated incidents that have killed and injured hundreds of civilians.
In a statement, the rights group said reports of civilian deaths from cross-border attacks heightened the need for independent inquiries into whether international humanitarian law has been violated by either attacking or defending forces.
Citing United Nations figures, HRW said more than 750 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in cross-border attacks by Pakistani forces during the first three months of 2026, most of them in airstrikes in eastern and southern Afghanistan.
The organization highlighted Pakistani airstrikes on June 29 in three eastern Afghan provinces that killed at least 28 civilians and wounded 49 others, including women and children, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
Pakistani authorities said the strikes targeted militants they blamed for an earlier attack on Pakistani security personnel in Karachi, but provided no details about the targets, HRW said.
The group also cited an April 27 airstrike in Kunar province that UNAMA said killed seven civilians and wounded 79 others, including 13 women and 39 children. A local resident told HRW that his four-year-old daughter lost fingers in the attack and his 11-year-old brother was killed.
HRW further referred to a March 16 strike on Kabul’s Omid drug rehabilitation center, which it said killed at least 269 civilians and injured more than 122 others. The organization said its investigation found no evidence that the facility was being used for military purposes, describing the attack as “unlawfully indiscriminate.”
“Civilian casualties alone are not conclusive evidence of laws-of-war violations, but reports of civilian deaths heighten the need for impartial investigations of possible war crimes by either attacking or defending forces,” HRW said.
“International humanitarian law requires all parties to distinguish between civilians and military objectives and to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm,” HRW said, adding that violations by one side do not absolve the other of its obligations under the laws of war.
The rights group also said Pakistani mortar and artillery attacks had forced the closure of 19 health facilities in border areas, worsening an already difficult humanitarian situation amid the return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have grown increasingly strained in recent years. Islamabad accuses the Taliban of allowing Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants and other armed groups to operate from Afghan territory and launch attacks inside Pakistan. In response, Pakistan has carried out a series of cross-border airstrikes, including strikes deep inside Afghanistan in areas such as Kabul and Kandahar, saying it is targeting militant hideouts. The Taliban administration rejects the allegations and has repeatedly condemned the strikes as violations of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
