Claim: A video shows people raising the national flag of Afghanistan on a pedestrian bridge in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth neighbourhood during recent ethnic riots that flared up following the murder of Sindhi youth Bilal Kaka during a quarrel at a hotel.
Fact: The video is in fact from August 2021 and shows people in Afghanistan’s Khost province raising the national flag of Afghanistan over a pedestrian bridge as a sign of opposition to the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of the country.
On 15 July 2022, Facebook user ‘Khadim Siyal’ shared a video showing people — some of them armed — on a pedestrian bridge carrying the flag of Afghanistan. The post was captioned in the Sindhi language as follows:
“ڪراچي سھراب ڳوٺ ۾ افغانستان جو جھنڊو چاڙھيو ويو اتي قانون نافظ ڪندڙ ادارا ڪٿي آھن سنڌ جي ٽيڪس تي پلجندڙ رينجرس ڇو بيوس آ سنڌ گويرنمنٽ ڪٿي آ سنڌ جو آءَ جي ڇو چپ آ اھو ھڪ وڏو سواليـ نشان آھي [Where were the law enforcement agencies when the flag of Afghanistan was hoisted in Sohrab Goth Karachi? Where are the Rangers, who are paid for through the tax from Sindh? Where is the government of Sindh? Why is the IG [Inspector-General of Police] silent? This is a big question mark!]”
The video surfaced on social media amid ethnic riots that erupted in Karachi following the killing of Sindhi youth Bilal Kaka during a quarrel at a hotel. Kaka was allegedly shot dead by the Pashtun owners of the hotel in which he was dining, leading to violent ethnic clashes, including arson and looting, across several cities in Sindh, including Karachi.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check investigated whether such an incident took place in Karachi and traced the source of the video.
We used Google Lens and Google Reverse Image Search to identify a screenshot from the video in question. The search led us to a TikTok video that has the following text in the Pashto language superimposed on it:
“دچارشنبې پرورځ په خوست ولایت کي هم عامو خلکو دافغانستان دملي بیرغ په ملاتړ لاریون وکړ [On Saturday, ordinary people in Khost province also protested in support of the national flag of Afghanistan]”
Soch Fact Check then searched images for “Khost protest Afghanistan flag,” which led us to a Daily Mail article from 18 August 2021 about the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of Kabul following the exit of United States’ troops from the country. A screenshot from a similar video likely shot at the same location but from another angle was found in the report and was attributed to Twitter user @IhteshamAfghan, who posted the clip on 17 August 2021.
Further, we used Facebook’s organic search tools using the aforementioned text from the TikTok clip and found this video on the verified Facebook page of BBC Pashto, with the following caption:
“د چارشنبې پر ورځ په خوست ولایت کې هم عامو خلکو د افغانستان د ملي بیرغ په ملاتړ لاریون وکړ او یاد بیرغ یې د ښار مرکزي برخه کې پورته کړ. د لاریون پر مهال ګډوډي رامنځته شوه او پر خواله رسنیو خپرو شویو ویډیوګانو کې ښکاري چې یو شمېر وسلوال د خلکو لېرې کولو لپاره هوایي ډزې کوي. ځایي سرچینو بي بي سي ته منلې چې دې ډزو کې لږ تر لږه یو کس ټپي شوی دی. [On Wednesday, common people in the Khost province also protested in support of the national flag of Afghanistan and raised the flag in the central part of the city. There was confusion during the protest and, in the videos published on social media, it appears that some armed men are shooting in the air to disperse the people. Local sources admitted to the BBC that at least one person was injured in the shooting.]”
Virality
The organic search conducted by Soch Fact Check turned up numerous Facebook posts that can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, among others. Some posts featured false or misleading superimposed text despite having accurate captions, such as this and this.
The video was shared numerous times on Twitter as well and can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the seven-day period from 14 July to 21 July 2022 using the following search terms in the Urdu and Pashto languages:
- “ڪراچي سھراب ڳوٺ افغانستان جھنڊو [Karachi Sohrab Goth Afghanistan flag]”
- “پٽاڻ جهنڊا افغانستان [Pathan flag Afghanistan]”
- “کراچی افغانستان جھنڈا [Karachi Afghanistan flag]”
- “پشتون افغانستان کا جھنڈا کراچی میں لہرانے سے بہتر ہے [Better than waving the flag of Pashtun Afghanistan in Karachi]”
- “ڪراچيء افغانستان جهنڊا [Karachi Afghanistan flag]”
The first and second search terms received 742 interactions across 27 posts and 460 interactions across 41 posts on Facebook, respectively.
The third search term turned up more than 35 posts on Facebook with 3,926 interactions. The fourth and fifth ones, on the other hand, received 222 interactions across six posts and 486 interactions across eight posts.
Four videos — here, here, here, and here — got 45,000, 43,000, 38,000, and 16,000 views, respectively.
Conclusion: A video allegedly depicting people raising the national flag of Afghanistan during recent ethnic clashes in Karachi is, in fact, from August 2021 and shows people in Afghanistan’s Khost province raising the country’s national flag in protest of the Afghan Taliban’s takeover.