As Pakistan launched a mass eviction marketing campaign of Afghans in April, social media posts shared a video they falsely declare reveals an Afghan retailer ransacked in Punjab province. The clip depicts a chaotic purchasing scene for the Muslim vacation Eid, one of many store’s house owners informed AFP.
“In Punjab, on the one hand, the Pakistani authorities is forcibly deporting Afghans, whereas however, the Punjabi individuals are looting Afghan items as booty,” reads the Urdu-language caption to the video shared on X on April 6, 2025.
It reveals individuals shouting and scrambling to get heaps of wrapped-up garments in a boutique.
Screenshot of the false publish, taken on April 21, 2025
Related posts surfaced elsewhere on X following Islamabad’s strict deportation marketing campaign (archived link).
Afghans in Pakistan have reported weeks of arbitrary arrests, extortion and harassment by authorities, with lots of these forcibly returned dwelling in Punjab and Sindh provinces.
Analysts say the expulsions are designed to stress neighbouring Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, which Islamabad blames for fuelling an increase in border assaults.
Afghanistan’s prime minister Hasan Akhund condemned the “unilateral measures” taken by its neighbour and urged the Pakistani authorities to “facilitate the dignified return of Afghan refugees”.
Though the circulating clip is unrelated to the deportations, feedback to the false posts recommend individuals had been misled.
“These poor Afghan shopkeepers are being oppressed, Punjab is so grasping. Why oppress the poor? Punjabi individuals think about themselves Muslims, theft will not be the work of Muslims,” a wrote.
“The identical ethical decline that the rulers of the nation are affected by is now clearly seen in Pakistani society,” one other mentioned.
‘Eid rush’
A reverse image search of the video’s keyframes on Google led to a post on X post from Iftikhar Firdous, an editor at native information outlet The Khorasan Diary, who mentioned the clip has been misrepresented (archived link.)
He shared a hyperlink to the unique TikTok post on March 21 from a person named Shafiq Ahmad (archived here and here).
A overview of Ahmad’s account discovered he shared one other video on April 7 clarifying the sooner clip doesn’t present an Afghan-owned enterprise being looted (archived link).
The video’s narration says it reveals prospects scrambling to pay money for in-demand objects at a garments store referred to as “Yahya Zakriya Sajjad Vogue Arts” in Punjab’s capital Lahore days earlier than Eid.
He shared similar different movies in his profile (archived here and here).
Screenshot comparability of the false publish (L) and Shafiq Ahmad’s TikTok publish
AFP reached out to the shop and one in every of its house owners, Sajjad Sheikh, mentioned Ahmad is an worker.
“The video was shot within the days main as much as Eid, it reveals the Eid rush,” Sheikh, who recognized himself as Pakistani, informed AFP.
“It doesn’t present something associated to the Afghan deportations or looting of Afghan companies.”
Photographs of the store geotagged on Google Maps present the same background structure seen within the video (archived link).
Related videos of Eid purchasing sprees in Pakistan have been beforehand shared on-line (archived link).
