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| - Fact Check: Old Video passed off as Afghan Forces seizing Pak Army post amid clashes
The purported video of Afghan forces capturing a Pakistani Army post amid ongoing clashes actually dates back to September 2023.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is unrelated to the current clashes and has been online since at least September 2023.
In Short
- A video showing armed men throwing stones at Pakistani flags went viral
- Video claimed Afghan forces had seized Pakistani army post
- India Today Fact Check found video is old, dates to September 2023
Four civilians and three military personnel were reportedly injured in Pakistan on March 18 due to shelling from across the Afghanistan border. Tensions escalated between the two countries as Pakistani fighter jets conducted airstrikes inside the Afghan provinces of Paktika and Khost. This retaliation came after a suicide bombing attack on March 16 against Pakistani security forces in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The Jaish-e-Fursan-e-Muhammad militant organisation claimed responsibility for the deadly ambush.
Amid these events, a video surfaced on social media showing a bunch of armed men throwing stones at Pakistani flags, painted on the walls of an old and worn building. Those sharing the video alleged that Afghan forces had seized a Pakistan Army post during the ongoing clashes. For instance, a social media user sharing the video, wrote, “Video: A Pakistan Army post captured by Afghan forces in ongoing border clashes.” An archived version of this post can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that the video is unrelated to the ongoing clashes. The video has been on the internet since at least September 2023.
OUR PROBE
A reverse search of keyframes from the viral video led us to a YouTube video dated September 12, 2023. The video shared on a channel called "Pashton Plus" carried a screenshot from the viral video. The accompanying caption stated that the video showed the Taliban seizing a Pakistani outpost and hurling stones at the Pakistani flag. This finding confirms that the video predates the ongoing clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Further searches led us to an extended version of the video in question, which was shared on Facebook on September 11, 2023, with similar information.
With subsequent searches, we found several media reports from September 2023, including those from Hindi News18 and India Today, regarding the video. According to them, the video showed Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP) militants reportedly seizing control of the Pakistan army's headquarters in Chitral, a city located in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. On September 6, 2023, militants affiliated with the Taliban in Pakistan launched a large-scale assault in Chitral, overruning several villages and resulting in the loss of many soldiers' lives.
At the time, several people shared the viral video on social media platforms, accompanied by similar claims.
While we could not independently verify the location of this video, it is clear that it predates the ongoing clashes.
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