Claim: An image of a crashed Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jet was shared with overlay text that reads “Pakistani fighter jet was shot down by brave people of Panjsher Valley Afghanistan.”
Fact: The image is from a January 2020 crash of a PAF training flight. The image has also been previously used by newspapers as a stock image for stories related to air force plane crashes.
On 7 September 2021 Facebook user Sakhi Nazari posted two images depicting a crash site. The rubble of a fighter jet plane crash is visible in the foreground of the image. The plane has a clear Pakistan flag on the wing.
One of the images is superimposed with the text “Pakistani fighter jet was shot down by brave people of Panjshir valley Afghanistan”.
A reverse image search reveals that the claim is false.
Soch Fact Check found that the image actually depicts a PAF plane which crashed after taking off from Mianwali in January 2020, well before the US announced plans to withdraw from AfghanistanTwo pilots lost their lives in the crash . The image appeared in multiple online reports published by news organisations in the aftermath of the incident.
-
- The image from the claim can be seen under the main headline image in this article. It appears by itself lower in the article. It is dated 7 January 2020.
Following the announcement that all US forces would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by 11 September 2021, Taliban attacks against the Afghan government began to intensify, culminating in the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul on 15 August 2021.
The Taliban are fighting resistance forces led by Ahmad Massoud in the Panjshir valley. Some journalists covering Afghanistan have alleged that the Taliban are receiving air support from the Pakistan military.
Summary: A reverse image search reveals that the image does not depict a PAF jet that crashed at Panjshir valley, as claimed The image is in fact of a PAF plane that crashed in Pakistan after taking off from Mianwali in January 2020.