Police in Tank District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa carried out a mock counterterrorism drill on Wednesday in which children at a hospital played the role of hostages.

The exercise, organized on the instruction of Tank District Police Officer (DPO) Waqar Ahmed to equip police to deal with "emergency situation", was held at the Christians Hospital in Tank, according to a post on an unverified page of Tank Police.

In the 2 minute 47 seconds video, terrorists have taken over the hospital and are holding children hostage until a team of law-enforcement team breaches the perimeter and rescue the hostages by killing the terrorists. It is set to rousing music with bilingual lyrics and features the mugshot of DPO Waqar Ahmed at the bottom left of the screen for the duration of the video.

The video has raised questions of ethics and whether inclusion of minors in such drills is permitted by the law.

"Were these children paid actors, volunteers or patients at the hospital? Moreover, was there parental consent to involve the children in the drill?" inquired one local digital news platform.

Users on social media also voiced concern and alarm over the inclusion of children in such an exercise.

"State institutionalised child soldiers...," wrote user iwht the handle ProgPakistan.

One user, with the handle ulusyar3, wrote that such dramatised displays needed to stop.

However, the above post also led to confusion as the user didn't clarify that the image was from a mock counterterrorism drill.