Claim: As tension escalates in Parachinar, Kurram District, a photo shows the Taliban gathered at the Pakistan- Afghanistan border.
Fact: The photo has been wrongly linked to the ongoing dispute between two tribes in Kurram; it is an old photo dating back to 2021.
Following firing over a land dispute between Bohshera and Dandar tribes on 8 July 2023 in the surrounding areas of Parachinar, at least five people were killed and over 30 others were injured, according to a media report.
Fact or Fiction?
On 9 July 2023, Baqir Sajjad (@baqirsajjad) posted a photo on Twitter claiming that it shows the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Afghan Taliban gathered at the border amid escalating sectarian conflict in Parachinar, Kurram District in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
“Disturbing scenes at the fenced border as TTP & Afghan Taliban gather, poised to leap into the escalating sectarian conflict in #Parachinar. Another build up near Kohat. With 12 lives already lost, how many more will it take before forces intervene?,” his tweet reads.
Soch Fact Check used reverse image search tools and found multiple tweets from 9 August 2021 here, here, here, here and here, carrying the same photo.
One of the tweets, posted by Chris Alexander (@calxandr), states that the photo shows Taliban fighters waiting to cross the border from Pakistan to Afghanistan.
The search also turned up a LinkedIn post by The Afghan Security Institute that carries the same photo with the caption, “Militants seem to be waiting alongside the Durand Line (Pak-Afghan) border to take part in the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.”
The photo can also be found in an article by Afghan Paper. “The Taliban are waiting to enter Afghanistan on the border line,” it is captioned.
Virality:
The claim can be found here, here, here and here on Twitter.
On Facebook, the photo was posted here, here, here and here.
Conclusion: The viral photo that features the Taliban is not related to the dispute between two tribes over land in Kurram; it is an old photo.
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