Claim: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants beheaded a Shia citizen in Parachinar.
Fact: The video of a man being beheaded appeared on X on 12 May 2024, with some claims suggesting that it originated from Afghanistan. It has been shared in different contexts since.
On 29 July 2024, a user on X posted a video (archive) of a man being beheaded with the caption, “Ya Aba Abdillah Al Hussain (a) please save your shia’s in Parachinar.”
The caption attributed the video to the clashes in Parachinar in July 2024.
What happened in Parachinar?
On 25 July, The Khorasan Diary, a non-partisan journalist-run platform, reported on X: “A land dispute between Shia and Sunni tribes in the Kurram merged district has escalated overnight, with both sides employing heavy weapons, resulting in at least 34 known injuries in the areas of Boshera and Janan Kalay.”
According to Dawn, the two sides used missiles and other heavy weapons to target each other’s positions. Rockets and missiles were also fired at the Parachinar and Sadda towns.
As of 30 July 2024, as many as 49 people died and 200 others were injured according to Dawn (archive). “The Parachinar hospital MS said that road blockades had led to a shortage of medicines and oxygen in the major health facility of the region. He said at least 12 injured persons were shifted to Peshawar in precarious condition”, the report added.
While mainstream news reports indicated that the issue was land-related, many social media users labelled it as a sectarian conflict. One user on X shared a video (archive) with the caption: Militants have organised Lashkars in #Kurram, openly challenging Govt’s writ, threatening the Shia population of #Parachinar of attacks.
“We all have gathered here for war. All the war measures have been taken; we will fight. In Bagan, even your father will block the way. Only Sunni vehicles will pass on this Tall Parachinar road. We will not allow any Shia vehicle to pass through here”.
The Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Faisal Karim Kundi, explicitly stated that the conflict was not due to sectarian differences but rather a land dispute.
Sectarian violence in Parachinar
The Kurram district shares a border with Afghanistan, and has long experienced sectarian strife between Shia and Sunni communities. In 2007, in a fierce sectarian war that broke out when the Sunni Taliban attempted to conquer Parachinar; more than 3,000 people died and thousands more sustained injuries.
Although the severity of the conflict reduced, 2017 was marked by another uptick in violence. Both sides used a variety of methods including sophisticated assault weapons, suicide bombings, and targeted assassinations.
In 2023 again, minor incidents escalated into major sectarian conflicts, often fueled by misinformation. On 4 July 2023, a Sunni van driver was shot dead near Norki village in Tiri Mangal, a predominantly Sunni area. Although the incident stemmed from a personal dispute, false narratives quickly emerged, suggesting sectarian motives. This misinformation led to heightened tensions and, shortly after, an attack on a government school in Tiri Mangal, where Shia staff from Parachinar were targeted, resulting in seven fatalities.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check contacted Iftikhar Firdous, the founding editor of The Khorasan Diary, who is based in Peshawar and Islamabad to verify the claim. He confirmed that the video is not from Kurram and that the TTP was not involved in the clashes in the district in July. Contrary to the claim by some users on X, Firdous stated that the video is from later than 2007.
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse-image search of the footage in the claim and found that the video (archive) first appeared on X on 12 May 2024 with the caption:
په دا ډیر وخت مي دویډیو څخه دومره لذت نه حاصل ڪړې لڪه ددغه ویډیو څخه❤😘
چي د #تحریک_طالبانTTP مجاهدین د isiیو جاسوس دڅټ لخوا ذبحه ڪوي💪
ویډیو لږ وروسته
#کاپی
[Translated from Pashto: I haven’t derived this much pleasure from a video in a long time as I did from this video ❤😘
where the #Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) mujahideen are beheading an ISI spy from the back 💪
The video will follow shortly
#Copy ]
The video (archive) was shared again on 24 June 2024 with the caption:
دا د #تحریک_طالبانTTP مجاهدین دي چ دisi جاسوس ې دثبوتونو سره نیولئ، دڅټ لخوایې ذبح ڪوي💪”
افف جاسوس خو باید اول په ژوندوني پوست شي بیا ذبح”
[Translated from Pashto: These are the mujahideen of the #Tehrik-e-Taliban TTP who have captured an ISI spy with evidence and are beheading him from the back. An ISI spy should first be skinned alive and then beheaded.]
While both the posts claimed that the video shows the TTP beheading a spy from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), another post claimed that the video is from Afghanistan.
On 29 July 2024, the video was shared here (archive) on X with the caption:
افغانستان میں خارجی نور ولی محسود سے منحرف اور خوارج کی سچائی جان کر بھاگنے والے دہشت گرد کو ذب۔۔ح کر دیا گیا۔”
ذب۔۔ح ہونے والا مردان کا رہائشی تھا جس کو آن لائن بھرتی کیا گیا۔”
[Translated from Urdu: In Afghanistan, the terrorist who defected from the foreign Noor Wali Mehsud and fled knowing the truth of the Khawarij was slaughtered.
The deceased was a resident of Mardan who was recruited online.]
On the same date, a resident of Parachinar shared a screenshot from the same video on X (archive) with the caption:
“میں #پاراچنار کی بیٹی آپ تمام سوشل میڈیا یوزرز سے ایک گزارش کرتی ہوں
یہ حقیقت ہے کہ ہم پر ظلم و ستم کے پہاڑ ڈھائے جا رہے ہیں
یقینا آپ سب اگاہ ہیں
لیکن خدارا فیک مواد شیئر نہ کریں پاراچنار کے نام سے
جدید دور ہے ہر چیز جھوٹ اور سچ جلدی ہی سامنے ا جاتا ہے
اگر آپ فیک نیوز شیئر”
[Translated from Urdu: I Parachinar’s daughter have a request to all you social media users
It is a fact that mountains of persecution are being thrown at us
Surely you are all aware
But please don’t share fake content in the name of Parachinar
In modern times, everything is a lie and the truth comes out quickly
If you share fake news]
Several other X users claimed they had seen the video earlier, with one claim alleging that it shows a beheading by the Afghan Taliban and not the TTP. Their replies can be seen here, here, and here. Archived posts can be seen here, here, and here.
The origin of the video is, therefore, unconfirmed as it has surfaced under different claims within varied contexts. Soch Fact Check could not independently verify whether it is from Pakistan or Afghanistan. However, seeing that the video appeared on the internet in May 2024, we can confirm that it does not show a man being beheaded during the recent clashes in Parachinar, which started on the evening of 24 July.
Virality:
The video was shared on X (formerly Twitter) here, here, here, here and here. Some of the posts have since been deleted for violating the platform’s rules, but the archived posts can be viewed here, here, here, here, and here.
It was shared on Facebook here and here. Archived posts can be seen here and here.
On Instagram, it was shared here.
Conclusion: The video of a man being beheaded by militants is not from recent clashes in Parachinar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The video first appeared on X on 12 May 2024, and has since been linked to beheadings carried out by the TTP, while other claims suggested that it shows the Afghan Taliban.
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Background image in cover photo: Geo News
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