Claim: An image on social media claims to show the People’s Bus stuck in a sinkhole in Larkana.
Fact: The claim is false. The photo actually shows a 2018 accident involving a Metro Bus.
On 19 November 2022, a Facebook user shared an image of a bus in a sinkhole with an Urdu caption which, when translated to English, reads, “A paved road in Larkana has lovingly embraced the new government bus. This is a new technology. Of course, only a government contractor specializing in modern road construction can do such a thing. Indeed, this is a wonderful road. And inshallah the bus will also go well. Sindh is a lucky province that has been blessed with such good contractors. This credit also goes to the government of Sindh.”
The caption implies that one of the Sindh Government’s recently inaugurated People’s Bus Service vehicles is stuck in a sinkhole in a road in Larkana.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check investigated the claim and conducted a reverse image search on Google. The results include a news report published by Dawn on 13 May 2018. The article, headlined “Bus trapped in sinkhole”, reports that the accident occurred in Multan. According to Dawn, the bus was trapped in a sinkhole after a road near Shadab Colony caved in. The accident in Multan occurred in 2018 and the Metro Bus System was launched in January 2017, as reported by the provincial Punjab Transit Authority.
A further keyword search led to video reports about the incident that were also broadcast in May 2018 by Pakistani news outlets, including Samaa, BOL, and 24 News.
Punjab Metro Buses and Sindh People’s Bus are both red in colour but their shape and number plates are different.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 30-day period from 26 October to 25 November using the following search term:
- “لاڑکانہ کی ایک پکی سڑک نے نئی سرکاری بس کو پیار سے اپنی گود میں لے لیا ہے”
The search term received 300 interactions across 13 posts on Facebook. The false claim with images and video can be found here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
On Twitter, the false claim is shared here, here, here, here, here and here in the last 7 days from 21 – 27 November.
Conclusion: An image of a bus stuck in a sinkhole is from 2018 when a Punjab Metro Bus was trapped in Multan.