Claim: The video shows protesters in Quetta chanting slogans seeking independence from the Pakistani state.
Fact: The video of protests is dubbed over.
A Facebook user shared a video of the recent protests in Quetta, showing demonstrators chanting the following slogans [translated from Urdu]:
“Let Punjab hear it, (independence) let Punjab hear it (independence), let the general hear it (independence), let the general hear it (independence), let the soldier hear it (independence), let the soldier hear it.”
The slogan played during the video implies that the protesters raised slogans for Balochistan’s independence from the state.
What is happening in Quetta?
Protesters held a sit-in outside the University of Balochistan last week, demanding the release of members of the rights group Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), whom they claim were unlawfully detained by security agencies. The rights group is led by activist Dr Mahrang Baloch, who was also at the forefront of last week’s protests in Quetta. She was consequently arrested during the protests on 22 March and charged with “terrorism, sedition and murder.”
The police tear-gassed and opened fire on protesters, killing three and injuring at least a dozen. Dawn reported that “protesters pelted the police with stones and beat them up, leaving 10 personnel, including a policewoman, injured.”
The protests were held after families of missing persons said authorities barred them from entering the morgue in Civil Hospital in Quetta, to identify the dead bodies that were brought to the hospital. A BYC spokesperson confirmed to Dawn that these families had gathered at the Civil Hospital hoping to identify if any of the dead bodies at the morgue belonged to their missing family members, who either do not return or are found dead bearing signs of torture. The spokesperson also told Dawn that police baton-charged the protesters after they tried to gain access to the morgue, and arrested several people.
Quoting official sources, Dawn reported that BYC members forcefully entered the hospital and took away five unidentified bodies with them, three of which were later retrieved.
However, authorities claimed the bodies belonged to insurgents from the banned militant group BLA, who were killed in a military operation following the BLA’s hijacking of a passenger train on 11 March.
Leaders of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) were arrested from their homes after holding a press conference at the Quetta Press Club concerning the issue of unidentified bodies that had been brought to the Civil Hospital in Quetta. They claimed that the bodies possibly belonged to the missing persons and the victims of enforced disappearances, allegedly picked up by the military establishment. The government was falsely portraying that the bodies of missing persons were actually of the militants killed by the security forces in an operation after the hijacking of Jaffar Express, the BYC further alleged.
Soch Fact Check could not independently verify whether the bodies at the morgue belonged to militants killed in the aftermath of the train hijacking or if they were of the victims of enforced disappearances.
Amnesty International issued a statement against the arrest of Dr Baloch that said: “Pakistani authorities must immediately release Mahrang Baloch and all others being detained for exercising their right to peaceful protest, and refrain from implicating Baloch activists in frivolous cases to unlawfully prolong their detention.”
Fact or Fiction?
Verifying the video of Quetta protests
Soch Fact Check verified that the video was actually taken at a protest in front of the University of Balochistan. All the posts shared below in the article and linked here appeared recently, around the time of the protests, which suggests the video is from the recent protests.
Two TikTok videos shot from different angles around the time of the protest also confirm the incident took place in front of UOB, its post office, as the scenes from this video, particularly the area of fire in front of UOB’s gate, match the footage in the claim.
On the left is the screenshot of the Facebook video from the claim. On the right is the TikTok video from a different angle of the same incident
The area shown in the above video also matches the area shown in Google Maps:
Additionally, Dawn on 23 March reported that “…the post office of Balochistan University and many shops on Sariab Road had been torched while a heavy contingent was present in the area to disperse the protesters.” This corroborates that the unrest, as shown in the footage from the claim, occurred in front of the UOB.
Fact-checking the audio
Soch Fact Check analysed the video from the recent protest and found several signs indicating that it has been dubbed.
Firstly, none of the protesters appear to be chanting this slogan, which is a sign of dubbing. Secondly, the chanting in the audio appears to be from a rally, where one person speaks on a microphone, and the audience echoes “independence” in response. However, scenes from the footage in the claim depict unrest during a protest, where the voices of the people can be more scattered and uncoordinated, a sign the footage was dubbed over.
Taking cues from this, Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the video and found it on Facebook, where it was shared on 23 March 2025 but with an entirely different audio of a slogan in the Brahvi language. The Facebook version was also shared on Instagram, showing that the video appeared with different audio, and therefore, the footage from the claim was also likely dubbed over. Though Soch Fact Check did not find footage with original audio, we translated this version of the audio in case it is being circulated online as the original version.
The translation in Urdu from Brahvi states:
چلتن کا یہ للکار کہتا ہے ,صبح ہمارا ہے صبح ہمارا
لکھ کر لو شکست تمہاری ہے, صبح ہمارا ہے صبح ہمارا
In English, the rough translation is:
“The Chiltan’s strength and calling says, the morning is ours, the morning is ours. You should know the defeat is yours, the morning is ours, the morning is ours.”
When translated from Brahvi, the audio from the Facebook video is a message of hope, struggle and resistance, according to native speakers Sock Fact Check spoke to, and it is not about seeking independence, as implied by the footage from the claim.
The caption of the post is written in Sindhi. Using Google Translate, we found that it stated: “The situation in Balochistan is deteriorating. After the arrest of Dr. Mahrang Baloch, the situation is being described as critical. A viral video on social media is described as [from] Balochistan.”
Additionally, we found longer versions of the video on YouTube. Both contain audio that is different from the footage in the claim and also different from the Instagram and Facebook versions.
Although Soch Fact Check could not confirm which of these videos carry the original audio, various versions of the audio overlaid on the footage imply that the video in the claim was also dubbed over. The audio in the claim, in particular, misrepresents the message by the human rights groups in Balochistan, which demand an end to enforced disappearances and do not seek independence.
Furthermore, a keyword search of the slogan from the video in the claim revealed that it predates the protests in Balochistan. Soch Fact Check found a TikTok video from July 2024 featuring audio of the same slogan but the clip is entirely different. Particularly the part of the slogan where we hear chants of “azaadi” (“independence”) is the same in both videos, confirming that the audio has no connection to the video of the Quetta protests in the claim.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, rates the claim as false.
Virality
The Facebook post was liked 28,600 times and shared 2,500 times.
Conclusion: A video of protesters in Quetta chanting slogans of seeking independence from the Pakistani state is dubbed.
Background image in cover photo: Dawn
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