By The South Asia Times

Kabul/Islamabad - The Afghan Taliban regime on Monday night barred international media journalists from accessing the site of an alleged Pakistani airstrike in Kabul, where Taliban officials have claimed 400 people were killed, as glaring discrepancies emerged between official statements and eyewitness accounts regarding the true nature of the targeted facility.

A Kabul-based international media reporter told The South Asia Times that despite rushing to the location immediately after the strike, Taliban security forces surrounded the area and denied entry to foreign journalists.

"I reached there soon after the airstrike, but the area was surrounded by Taliban, and no one was allowed to enter the premises. I told them that I am a journalist, but they said the media is not allowed here," the reporter said.

According to the journalist, only select local media and one or two Arab media journalists were permitted to cover the scene, raising serious questions about transparency.

The Taliban's own spokesmen have issued wildly contradictory statements about the facility's occupancy, further eroding credibility.

Deputy Taliban spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat wrote on X: "The Pakistani military regime carried out an airstrike at approximately 9:00 PM this evening on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, a 2,000-bed facility dedicated to the treatment of drug addiction. Unfortunately, the death toll has so far reached 400, while around 250 others have been reported injured."

However, Taliban Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Sharafat Zaman told reporters in Kabul that there were only around 200 drug addicts in the facility at the time of the strike. The discrepancy between "2,000-bed facility" and "200 patients" raises fundamental questions about the Taliban's narrative.

Local residents and a university professor who spoke on condition of anonymity provided a starkly different picture from the Taliban's official narrative.

The professor told The South Asia Times that while the location hit by Pakistani jets was previously a drug addiction facility during the previous government, the Taliban later repurposed it.

"Only one portion was dedicated to drug addicts, and the remaining was under Taliban control. Common people were never allowed in that area," he revealed.

A local resident living near the compound corroborated this account: "The last part of the compound was used by the Taliban military. We saw large numbers of Taliban there every day, but I don't know what they were doing inside."

- Pakistan's detailed rebuttal

Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar issued a comprehensive statement on X, providing Islamabad's official account of the strikes:

"Pakistan's Armed Forces successfully carried out precision airstrikes on the night of 16 March as a part of Operation Ghazab Lil Haq, targeting Afghan Taliban regime terrorism sponsoring military installations in Kabul and Nangarhar," Tarar stated.

According to the minister, "Technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities at two locations in Kabul were effectively destroyed. The visible secondary detonations after the strikes clearly indicate the presence of large ammunition depots."

Tarar further detailed that in Nangarhar, Pakistan struck "four Afghan Taliban regime terrorism sponsoring military sites, destroying associated logistics, ammunition, and technical infrastructure."

Addressing the Taliban's civilian casualty claims, Tarar asserted: "All targeting has been done with precision only at those infrastructures which are being used by Afghan Taliban regime to support its multiple terror proxies, including Fitna Al Khawarij and Fitna Al Hindustan, as can be clearly seen in accompanied footage. False claims made by the propagandists Taliban regime cannot befool the Afghans and the World from their heinous actions supporting and sponsoring terrorism in the region."

He concluded with a warning: "Operations under Ghazab Lil Haq to safeguard Pakistani citizens against terrorism waged by Master Terror Proxy will continue until the desired objectives are fully achieved."

The conflicting statements and the barring of international media from the site fit a broader pattern of Taliban restrictions on press freedom. Just weeks ago, on February 28, Taliban intelligence officers raided the privately owned Rah-e-Farda TV station in Kabul, verbally abused staff, and forced the station off air over its coverage of the Pakistan conflict.

Last month, when Pakistan targeted seven Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) locations in Nangarhar Province, Khost Province and Paktika Province, the Taliban also barred media and local residents from visiting six of the sites.

For a regime already facing credibility crises over previous false claims, including fabricated stories of downed Pakistani jets and AI-generated images of airstrikes, the latest episode threatens to further isolate the Taliban diplomatically.