A video showing intense gunfire is being shared on social media as evidence of the clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan border forces, recently.
Some context: Pakistan launched airstrikes in Afghanistan targeting alleged Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) militant camps, after which the Afghan Taliban retaliated with cross-border attacks, triggering intense clashes that Pakistan called an “open war.”
News outlets such as Times Now, the Economic Times and News24 also shared this video on their social media pages.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Facebook)
What we found: At first, we divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.
It led us to a post on X featuring the same viral clip from 26 August 2021.
The video was uploaded by 'AlHadath' and noted, "Chilling scenes from the violent clashes in the Panjshir Valley."
We found another post on X from August 2021 claiming that the video was from the Panjshir valley.
We also found a post on X by Egyptian fact-checker Hossam ElHendy from 27 February.
The fact-checker had called out Reuters for also using this old clip and linking it to the present escalations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Additionally, as per a report by Al Jazeera from 22 August 2021, the Taliban sent several fighters towards the Panjshir Valley, the last region resisting their rule, when it took over most of Afghanistan that very year.
Anti-Taliban forces led by Ahmad Massoud had said that they were open to negotiations but prepared to fight if the Taliban attempted to seize the valley.
Conclusion: Team WebQoof was able to establish that the viral clip predates the recent escalations between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the clip is available on the internet since 2021.
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