Claim: A video shows civilians attacking the military after the announcement of Operation Azm-i-Istehkam.
Fact: The video actually appeared on the internet as early as 2020, and allegedly shows a clash between the public and the military in Parachinar, after a deadly blast in July of that year.
On 24 June 2024, a user on X (formerly Twitter) posted a video (archive) with the caption,
فوجی آپریشن کا پہلا نتیجہ کرم ایجنسی میں فوج پر عوام چڑھ گئی ٹرینڈ جوان بھاگنے میں کامیاب۔۔!!
[First result of the military operation. The people attacked the military in Kurram Agency. Trained soldiers managed to escape. ]
The 30-second-long video shows military vehicles and a large mob chasing security personnel on the road. It was shared after the federal government approved Operation Azm-i-Istehkam on 22 June in a bid to eliminate extremism and terrorism. However, the opposition parties refused to support any military operation, demanding that military leadership take Parliament into confidence first.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted an InVID video analysis on different keyframes of the video. The search on Google led to a video on X posted by a USA-based Indian account @ResearchWing on 24 July 2020. According to the caption, the video shows the anger of the Pashtuns who “unitedly gathered and thrashed Pakistan army and vehicles” following a blast in Parachinar in 2020.
A search on Facebook of posts published between July 2020 – July 2021 shows that the same video was shared by multiple users who alleged that it shows the public protesting in anger and frustration against the military after they failed to improve the security situation in the area.
These Facebook posts referred to the 23 July 2020 blast in Turi market, Parachinar area of Kurram district in which 17 people got injured, and that triggered city-wide protests as it was the third blast in one month.
Soch Fact Check can also confirm that the video is from Parachinar, based on the presence of Parachinar-related signboards that are visible in the surrounding area.
Even though the video’s origin and exact year could not be determined, we can confirm that it appeared on the internet as early as 2020. Thus, Soch Fact Check concludes that the video in the viral claim is not recent and unrelated to the recently launched Operation Azm-i-Istehkam.
Virality
On X, the video garnered 464.8K views, 20,000 likes and 7,800 reposts. The archived versions can be seen here and here.
It was also shared here, here, here and here on Facebook.
Conclusion: A video showing civilians from Kurram Agency attacking the military personnel after the announcement of Operation Azm-i-Istehkam is, in fact, old. It appeared on the internet as early as July 2020 and allegedly shows a clash between the civilians and the military after a blast in Parachinar.
Background image in cover photo: Express Tribune
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com