Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based international advocacy organisation, has called for an impartial investigation into possible war crimes following Pakistan's recent military strikes in Afghanistan, citing grave concern over mounting civilian casualties. The call came on 16 July amid mounting documentation of deaths and injuries across multiple Afghan provinces.

What HRW Is Demanding

The rights body stated that while civilian casualties alone do not constitute conclusive proof of laws-of-war violations, persistent reports of civilian deaths make independent probes of 'possible war crimes by either attacking or defending forces' urgently necessary.

'International humanitarian law requires warring parties to take all feasible precautions to minimise civilian harm. Attacking forces must at all times distinguish between civilians and civilian objects on the one hand, and combatants and military objectives on the other, and only target the latter,' HRW stated.

The organisation further noted that defending forces are equally obligated to protect civilians under their control, including by avoiding the placement of military objectives near densely populated areas. 'Violations by one side do not relieve the other of its own obligations,' it added.

Scale of Civilian Casualties

Last month, Pakistani airstrikes across three provinces in eastern Afghanistan reportedly killed and injured several civilians, including women and children. Pakistani authorities maintained that the strikes targeted militants responsible for attacks on Pakistani security personnel in Karachi days earlier, but provided no operational details, according to reports.

Citing the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), HRW reported that in the first three months of 2026, cross-border attacks by Pakistani forces killed and injured over 750 Afghan civilians, the majority from airstrikes in eastern and southern Afghanistan.

An earlier UNAMA report documented that Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan's Kunar province on 27 April killed 7 civilians and wounded 79, including 13 women and 39 children. One Afghan resident quoted by HRW described the personal toll: 'My daughter, Nila, who is 4 years old, was injured — she has lost her fingers. My brother, Ahmad, who was 11, was killed. I have lost my home, and my daughter has a permanent disability. This is the new reality of our life now.'

The Kabul Rehabilitation Centre Strike

Among the incidents drawing the sharpest scrutiny is the 16 March airstrike by Pakistani forces on the Omid Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Kabul, which killed at least 269 civilians and injured more than 122, most of them patients undergoing treatment. HRW said its own investigation found no evidence that the centre was being used for any military purpose, characterising the attack as 'unlawfully indiscriminate.'

Humanitarian Fallout

Beyond direct strike casualties, HRW reported that mortar attacks and shelling by Pakistani forces have forced the closure of 19 health facilities. The organisation noted that an already severe humanitarian crisis in the affected areas has been compounded by Pakistan's forced return of Afghan refugees to the same conflict zones — a development critics argue amounts to a double burden on a civilian population with nowhere to turn.

With UNAMA data pointing to a sustained pattern of cross-border strikes and HRW pressing for formal accountability mechanisms, international pressure on Islamabad to provide transparency over its operations in Afghanistan is expected to intensify.