Original subtitles

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

Hello and welcome to Global Eye,

a programme that brings you unmissable investigations

and reporting from around the globe,

made by teams from across the BBC World Service.

I am Farhat Javed,

a BBC correspondent based in Pakistan,

and this week, we are here in the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan is confronting a rapidly escalating HIV crisis,

now among the fastest growing in South Asia.

Figures from the World Health Organization reveal

that infections have risen by 200% over the past 15 years,

and uniquely, children are now getting the disease

in high numbers even when their parents are fine.

BBC Eye has been investigating how routine visits

for medical treatment in Pakistan have resulted

in hundreds of children getting this infection.

He injects his first patient through a cannula in his arm,

but then takes the same syringe

and puts it back into the medicine vial.

There is no reason to believe he does,

but if this child had HIV,

the entire vial could now be contaminated.

Also coming up on the programme, as Pakistan takes a lead role

in attempts to broker a ceasefire in Iran,

it stands on the brink of a full-scale war

with another neighbour, Afghanistan.

Why are they fighting and what is at stake

for the millions of ordinary people caught in the crossfire?

And we'll bring you the story of the world's biggest

Palestinian community outside of the Middle East.

And its location might surprise you.

Many thousands of Palestinians have been living

in Chile in South America since the 19th century.

We'll follow members of the community

as they help refugees from Gaza build new lives

on a new continent.

Hundreds of children in central Pakistan

have recently tested positive for HIV.

They came from different local communities,

set dozens of miles apart,

but local doctors noticed one thing appeared to unite

most of their paediatric patients who tested positive -

that they had been treated at the same local government hospital.

Officials say there is no proof children were infected there,

but BBC Eye went undercover to investigate

the source of the HIV outbreak and find out who is to blame.

Here is Ghazal Abbasi.

This is eight-year-old Muhammad Amin.

In 2024, he fell ill with a fever

and received treatment at his local hospital,

THQ Taunsa, in central Pakistan.

But after being discharged, Muhammad Amin got worse.

Eventually, the boy was diagnosed with HIV.

He began treatment, but it came too late.

The family's trauma didn't end there.

Shortly after Muhammad Amin's death,

his older sister Asma also received treatment

for flu symptoms at THQ Taunsa Hospital.

Two months later, she too fell seriously ill.

No adult in Asma's family tested positive for HIV.

So how did she contract the disease?

In the winter of 2024 and 2025,

more than 100 children in Taunsa tested positive for HIV.

Like Asma, many of those kids had been treated

at the government hospital, THQ.

And many of their parents told stories

about syringes being reused on child after child.

In late 2025, the BBC Eye team went undercover

inside THQ Hospital to see if these allegations were true.

Was medical malpractice placing children's lives at risk?

The Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Taunsa Sharif, known as THQ.

A staff member worried about what he'd seen

on the children's ward helped us

to document how children are treated.

It immediately becomes clear

that the go-to method of treatment for any fever or ailment

is via injection, mostly with liquid paracetamol.

Signs about infection control hang on walls

around the hospital, but staff appear to ignore them.

Like these nurses, who inject patients through their clothes.

They're not wearing sterile gloves.

No cotton swabs are used.

Patients are left to walk around the ward

with blood on their sleeves.

It doesn't take long

before our camera captures something much worse.

The nurse pulls up a used syringe from under the counter.

Liquid from the last patient is still visible inside.

She hands it to her colleague, ready to be reused on another child.

We shared our undercover footage to one of Pakistan's leading experts

on infectious diseases.

By early 2025, so many children had tested positive for HIV

that parents came out on the street in Taunsa, demanding action.

In mid-March, the government finally stepped in.

A joint task force was set up to investigate

what had gone wrong and why.

Our undercover team went into the hospital

six months after the crackdown,

but it didn't take long for them to capture proof

that children were still being put at risk.

In the children's emergency ward, this worker is getting ready

to fulfil a series of paracetamol prescriptions.

He takes a new syringe and fills it

from a multi-use vial of paracetamol.

He injects his first patient through a cannula in his arm,

but then takes the same syringe

and puts it back into the medicine vial.

There is no reason to believe he does,

but if this child had HIV,

the entire vial could now be contaminated.

Every child subsequently injected from that vial

is at risk of contracting the disease.

The worker dips a new syringe

into the same potentially infected vial...

...and injects the next child, again, through a cannula.

And then a third time, he goes into the same vial...

...and injects a third child via a cannula in his arm.

Doctor Altaf Ahmed is a clinical microbiologist

specialising in blood-borne diseases.

Our team witnessed ten occasions

when vials were double dipped and potentially contaminated.

All this months after the government promised

to keep Taunsa's children safe.

Even after the government intervention in THQ,

HIV infections amongst Taunsa's children appear to have continued.

We brought together data

from the Punjab Provincial Aids Screening Programme,

a data set leaked by Special Branch

and records from local private clinics...

...and documented 331 children from Taunsa

who tested HIV positive between November 2024 and October 2025.

Of their parents who also agreed to be tested,

less than one in 20 was HIV positive.

Dr Qasim Buzdar has been the Medical Superintendent of THQ

since March 2025,

when the government intervened to put an end to the outbreak.

I point out we have evidence

that syringes are currently being reused at the hospital.

In a shocking display of denial, the hospital boss refuses to admit

that our footage is current, or even real.

We asked the local government for a response

to the allegations in this film.

It said no validated epidemiological evidence

has conclusively established THQ as a source.

The Joint Mission has reaffirmed the role

of unregulated private practices

and the contribution of unscreened blood transfusions.

But an insider leaked the Joint Mission inspection report

to BBC Eye.

Conducted by WHO experts,

it does highlight the issues outlined in our film -

issues the government and hospital bosses continue to deny.

For children growing up with HIV,

the future feels uncertain and frightening.

Harmed in the very place trusted to keep them safe,

they will face stigma and need treatment for life.

It should never have happened.

Hundreds of children infected with an incurable disease

on a visit to the doctor.

But instead of facing the truth about what's gone wrong,

doctors and politicians seem more concerned

with protecting their own reputations.

Until Pakistan holds those responsible to account,

more parents and more children

will be forced to live through this nightmare.

This mosque in the suburbs of Islamabad is usually filled

with worshippers gathered here for prayers.

But now it stands quiet,

watched over by security guards and grieving families.

Just a few weeks ago, this country was celebrating Basant,

a spring kite festival many here hadn't seen for nearly two decades.

But those celebrations were overshadowed by a tragedy.

A suicide bomber attacked this Shia mosque,

killing dozens of worshippers who were here for Friday prayer.

Pakistani officials said that the attacker was linked

to a militant network operating from across the border

in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Taliban government denied any involvement,

but within days, Pakistan launched air strikes inside Afghanistan,

and since then, the tensions between the two neighbours

have escalated into one of their most serious confrontations

over the years.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a border

stretching more than 1,600 miles.

For decades, it has been a place of trade,

migration and cultural ties...

...but it has also been exploited by militant networks

moving between the two countries.

Authorities here have accused the Pakistani Taliban,

known as the TTP, of using Afghan territory as a base for operations.

The Taliban government denies allowing militants

to operate from its soil,

but the accusations have fuelled a growing diplomatic

and military standoff.

I have reported on this conflict

from both Afghanistan and Pakistan over the years,

and the pattern has often been the same - accusations, denials,

and cycles of violence that leave communities on both sides

living with uncertainty.

And those living near the frontier are the ones who are feeling

the impact most acutely.

In parts of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,

residents say that they have been told to leave villages

which are now considered too dangerous,

and in Afghanistan, hundreds of civilians are feared dead

in Pakistani aerial strikes.

Families living in this region have already experienced

displacements during previous wars

and military operations against militant groups,

and now they fear being forced to start over again.

But it's clear that the conflict is no longer confined

to the borderlands.

LOUD BLAST

Just a few weeks ago, Pakistan says one of its air defence systems

intercepted Afghan drones near Islamabad.

Afghan officials have not confirmed the incident,

but have acknowledged that they have sent drones

close to the Pakistani capital,

meaning the conflict is no longer confined to remote border regions.

Air strikes in Kabul last month

damaged critical infrastructure and caused civilian casualties.

Senators here at the Parliament House

have unanimously supported taking action against militant networks

said to be based in Afghanistan.

But despite rising tensions, neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan

can afford a prolonged confrontation.

With other neighbours,

Pakistan is trying to turn geography into diplomacy.

As well as Afghanistan, it also borders Iran,

and Pakistani officials have played a crucial role

in attempts to broker a ceasefire between Tehran and Washington.

Iran and Pakistan have a long history of cooperating

over energy, trade,

and their joint response to separatist Baloch insurgents,

who operate across both countries' borders.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani army chief Asim Munir,

has developed a strong personal rapport with Donald Trump,

who has called him his favourite Field Marshal.

Pakistan has a powerful self-interest

in ending the war in Iran.

It depends on Gulf energy, needs Saudi money,

wants US favour,

and fears any sectarian spill-over at home,

given its significant Shia population.

So it makes sense that Pakistan has been acting

as an intermediary between the US and Iran,

passing messages between the two,

publicly putting pressure on Iran

and offering to host rounds of talks.

So even as Pakistan risks escalating tensions with Afghanistan,

it has been acting as a force for de-escalation in Iran.

And now we are taking you to Chile in South America,

home to what is believed to be the largest Palestinian community

outside the Arab world.

A migration that began in the late 19th century

during the final decades of the Ottoman Empire.

Over the years, Palestinian newcomers built successful

businesses across the country

while preserving their traditions through food,

dance and a deep passion for football.

Today, the descendants of those early migrants

are welcoming refugees from Gaza.

BBC Mundo travelled to Chile to find out how they are adapting

to a new life across the world.

Hey-up!

Here is another highlight from the World Service this week.

As the Artemis II mission looped around the moon,

taking four astronauts further away from Earth than any human

had ever travelled, our dedicated space podcast,

13 Minutes Presents, followed the spacecraft's movements each day.

The podcast team, joined by experts, analysed each momentous event

as it happened, and discussed what this mission might mean

for the future of humanity,

and whether the US is now winning the space race.

You can listen to the podcast on BBC Sounds

or wherever you get your podcast.

Thanks for joining me in Pakistan.

We want your feedback on Global Eye.

Let us know what you think on social media

using the hashtag "bbcglobaleye."

Next week we'll be reporting from Turkey. Goodbye.