Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Paktika province on December 25, 2024, killed 46 people. Reportedly Afghan forces retaliated by targeting several points inside Pakistan, resulting in the deaths of 19 Pakistani soldiers.
However several images and videos are being shared among social media users with context to the recent Pakistani airstrikes strikes in Afghanistan and the reported retaliations on both Afghan and Pakistani sides.
You can see few X posts below:
The social media post mentions:
“Three Pakistan Embassy staffs in Afghanistan along with driver assassinated after a bike borne assailant dropped an IED through the backseat window of the vehicle 👀 ISIX an offshoot of Daesh could be behind this”
However, Fact Crescendo’s findings show that an old video from a blast in Khuzdar in May 2024 has been shared with misleading claims of assissanation of Pakistan Embassy Staff in Afghanistan.
Fact Check
As per latest media reports the conflict situation at Pakistan-Afghanistan border has further escalated since Pakistani airstrike in Afghanistan and the retaliation of Afghan forces. Casualties also have been reported on both sides.
However, there are no media reports regarding any such blast targeting and killing Pakistan embassy staff in Afghanistan recently.
Further, We split the video into small key fragments and applied Google reverse search for our investigation. The search led us to an article published by a website named Independent Urdu on 3 May 2024 and the same video was published by the website. According to the published article, the video shows the moment when Khuzdar press club President Muhammad Siddique Mengal was killed in a blast. The news further mentioned that Maulana Muhammad Siddique Mengal’s car was targeted by a motorcyclist with a magnetic bomb.
Independent Urdu Archived Link
Another news website named ARY NEWS also mentioned that the video shows the alleged bomber hurling explosive device into the vehicle of Pakistani Journalist Muhammad Siddique Mengal, who was also the local leader of JUI-F.
Conclusion
Hence, from the above investigation, it is clear that an old video from a blast in Khuzdar in May 2024 has been shared with misleading claims of assissanation of Pakistan Embassy Staff in Afghanistan. The video actually captured the moment when Khuzdar press club President and Pakistani Journalist Muhammad Siddique Mengal was killed in a blast.
Title:Old video of blast in Khuzdar shared as Pakistan Embassy Staff in Afghanistan killed in blast
Written By: Fact Crescendo TeamResult: False
