Claim: Social media post claims that a blast took place in the Pezu area of district Lakki Marwat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in November 2023.
Fact: The claim is misleading as no such incident has been reported recently. The blast actually took place in August 2023.
Fact or Fiction?
On 24 November 2023, the following message was widely circulated on WhatsApp in Urdu. The message reads,
لکی مروت/پولیس گاڑی پر حملہ
لکی مروت تھانہ پیزو کی پولیس موبائل گاڑی پر نامعلوم افراد کا حملہ فائرنگ سے دو اہلکار شہید تین زخمی۔ پولیس ذرائع
Translated [Attack on Lakki Marwat/Police vehicle. Unknown persons attacked the police mobile vehicle of Lakki Marwat’s Pezu police station, killing two officers and three injured. Police sources]
Screenshot of WhatsApp forwarded message
Iftikhar Firdous – journalist and founder of The Khorasan Diary debunked the claim on X (formerly Twitter) adding that no such incident occurred on 24 November 2023.
To investigate the matter, Soch Fact Check reached out to Mudasir Hayat, Station House Officer (SHO) at Pezu Police Station, in the Lakki Marwat District. He debunked the claim, saying that such an incident has not taken place in the area recently and that the news is actually from August 2023.
Furthermore, a search on Google led to a news report by Dawn News from 29 August 2023. According to the story, two police officers were killed and three were injured during an attack on their patrol van near the town of Darra Pezu, Lakki Marwat District. The police added that the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was responsible for the terror attack.
However, it must be noted that an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast took place in the Ozaki area of Lakki Marwat on 5 November 2023, as reported by Radio Pakistan. The incident occurred in the area of Sarai Naurang Tehsil, which is approximately 60 km from Pezu.
Virality
On Facebook, the archived versions of the misleading claim can be seen here, and here.
Conclusion: The news of a blast in Pezu, Lakki Marwat District, is misleading as the incident took place in August and not in November 2023.
Background image in cover photo: Alpha Coders
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