Claim: A video shows a Baloch ‘revolutionary’ firing from behind a wall as a fire burns nearby during a clash with Pakistan Army soldiers in the Balochistan province following the crash of a military helicopter in Harnai, near Khost, in September 2022.
Fact: The clip is, in fact, from Baluchistan, Iran, where a newly-formed armed group called “Mazaran Gomnam Baluchistan,” or “Anonymous Lions of Baluchistan,” opened responded in kind to the Iranian authorities’ shooting at protesters participating in a demonstration against the killing of Mahsa Amini.
On 26 September 2022, Twitter user @BugtiSaira posted a video showing a man hiding behind a wall, using what appears to be a gun, as a fire burns nearby. Bugti captioned the clip as follows:
“Revolutionaries are moving forward for the freedom of #Balochistan, now this struggle is going towards a new direction. And we will definitely get success.
Clashes broke out between Pak Army and Baloch revolutionaries after helicopter crash.
#HelicopterCrash #audioleak”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check used reverse image search tools to figure out the origin of the video and found it was tweeted by political strategist and Kyiv Post Special Correspondent Jason Jay Smart, with the caption, “#Iran’s people armed and resisting the theocracy’s attempts to clamp down.”
#Iran’s people armed and resisting the theocracy’s attempts to clamp down.#Iran #Tehran #IranProtests2022 #IranOp #IranProtests #IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/3Wcsj53QAA
— Jason Jay Smart (@officejjsmart) September 25, 2022
The timestamp shows it was uploaded to Twitter at 11:01 PM on 25 September 2022.
Multiple other accounts also posted the same video between 25-27 September. Among these was the verified Twitter account @AlHadath, which is “an interactive channel focusing on political events in the Arab region”. The timestamp of Al-Hadath’s tweet is 1:06 AM on 26 September.
Most captions state that the video was taken in Iran where protests have been taking place for the last two weeks after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was allegedly killed due to police brutality after the country’s so-called ‘moral police’ detained her for not following the national dress code for women. Some tweets state that the clip shows protesters and sympathetic groups.
However, other tweets mention that the clip depicts “Baloch revolutionaries” or “Baloch protesters revolting against the Iranian regime.” Some tweets linked the video groups known as the Mazaaraan Gomnām Baluchestân, which translates to the Anonymous Lions of Baluchistan.
An Instagram account, @mazaran.gomnam.balochistan, which appears to be the group’s official page, also posted the same video.
Its Persian-language caption mentions that the Anonymous Lions of Baluchistan responded to the “repressive forces’ fire in Dezap with fire” at the protesters and claims to be “supporters of the rebels and protesters”.
A tweet by @IranIntl_Ar translates what is being said in the video as, “In the clip, the spokesman says, ‘An armed clash with Khamenei’s mercenaries. For you, Mahsa, for you, Kurdistan.’”
It is important to note that Balochistan is a province in Pakistan and Baluchistan — or Sistan and Baluchistan — is a province in Iran; both share borders.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found that this video received close to 400 views. It was also uploaded on Facebook here.
The video was included in an article by Bangla News Dunia, an Indian media outlet that claimed fighting between Baloch ‘revolutionaries’ and Pakistan Army soldiers erupted following the Harnai helicopter crash in September 2022.
Conclusion: The clip is, in fact, from Baluchistan, Iran, where a newly-formed armed group called “Mazaran Gomnam Baluchistan,” or “Anonymous Lions of Baluchistan,” opened responded in kind to the Iranian authorities’ shooting at protesters participating in a demonstration against the killing of Mahsa Amini.