Claim: A video shows Pakistani forces attacking a post by the Afghan Taliban near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and also shooting down their quadcopter.
Fact: The video is not connected to Afghanistan or Pakistan and is likely linked to conflict between Kurdish armed groups and Turkish forces.
On 21 February, an X user posted a video (archive) purportedly showing Pakistani security forces attacking an Afghan Taliban post along the border. The caption reads: “Pakistan – Afghanistan International Border: Mohmand district. Pakistan has shot down Fitna al khwarij Afghan Taliban Quad Copters & has déstroyed the Afghan Taliban post via ATGM fire from where the quadcopter was launched at the Pakistani Post in Mohmand Area.”
While skirmishes have been reported along the border, Soch Fact Check could not find any reports about Pakistan shooting down a quadcopter by the Afghan Taliban.
Moreover, the video is unrelated to ongoing skirmishes or military operations by Pakistani security forces.
Tensions at the Pak-Afghan Border
Cross-border skirmishes have risen between Pakistan and Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 with the withdrawal of the US-led international forces.
In August 2021, cross-border fire from Afghanistan killed two Pakistani soldiers, and a retaliatory attack from the Pakistani side killed “two or three attackers.”
In early 2022, another instance of firing from Afghanistan at a border post killed five Pakistani soldiers, according to Al Jazeera. These attacks began after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the militant group based mostly in the bordering country, ended a month-long ceasefire agreement with Pakistan in December 2021.
In December 2024, a Frontier Constabulary (FC) soldier was killed and 11 others were injured in another incident of firing from the neighbouring country on Pakistani border posts. This occurred after Pakistani fighter jets bombed TTP camps inside Afghanistan.
Soch Fact Check also found reports that indicated clashes between Pakistani security forces and militants took place in February 2025. On 17 February, militants attacked a “convoy of trucks carrying food, medicine and other supplies for thousands of residents trapped by sectarian violence” in Kurram District, which borders eastern Afghanistan. According to the Associated Press (AP), local authorities began an operation against the militants who burned the trucks.
Most recently, Pakistani security forces conducted an operation against militants on 21 February in Karak district, located in the northwest of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan. “The military provided no further details about the killed militants, but such operations are often conducted against the Pakistani Taliban, which are also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP,” according to AP.
While skirmishes have been reported along the border, Soch Fact Check could not find any reports about Pakistan shooting down a quadcopter by the Afghan Taliban.
Moreover, the video is unrelated to ongoing skirmishes or military operations by Pakistani security forces.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check noticed that some users in the comments pointed out that the video was unrelated to the incident mentioned in the claim.
“You have spent your whole life lying,” an X user wrote in Pashto in the comments and also shared a screenshot of the website that carried the image in the thumbnail of the video.
Taking cues from this, Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the claim’s video and found the website shown in the screenshot shared by users on X.
The article titled “Gerila TV publishes video clips of three military operations” and published by Firat News Agency (ANF), a Kurdish news agency, in July 2019 carries a photo that matches keyframes from the video being fact-checked.
According to the article, the three attacks were likely carried out against the Turkish forces, which were posted by Gerila TV, a channel that posts content about the People’s Defense Forces, the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The militant separatist group has “waged an insurgency since 1984 against Turkish authorities for greater cultural and political rights, primarily with the objective of establishing an independent Kurdish state.”
The photo carried by ANF has a “Gerila TV” logo at the top-right corner of the image. However, the footage in the claim seems like it was cropped to hide this logo and, therefore, the source of the footage.
Soch Fact Check then scoured Gerila TV’s video archives and found the original 2019 video on page 48.
The footage, titled “2019 Activities”, was uploaded five years ago. The keyframes at timestamps 0:18, 0:36, and then between 0:57 to 2:26, correspond with the video in the claim.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, confirms that the video predates the ongoing military operations at the Pak-Afghan border and has no connection to Afghanistan or Pakistan. Thus, we rate the claim as false.
Virality
The X post was viewed 71,100 times and liked 296 times.
I also appeared on X here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.
On Facebook here (archive), here.
Conclusion: The video is not connected to Afghanistan or Pakistan. In fact, it shows an episode of conflict between Kurdish armed groups and Turkish forces that took place in 2019.
Background image in cover photo: Dawn
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