After the our bodies of individuals killed in a practice siege by separatist gunmen in southwestern Pakistan had been recovered from the positioning in March 2025, a photograph was falsely shared in social media posts that claimed it confirmed the victims’ coffins. The photograph in actual fact exhibits the coffins of Pakistani military troopers killed throughout a bombing in February 2011.
“Thanks, Baloch brothers,” reads a part of the Hindi-language caption to a photo exhibiting coffins draped with Pakistan flags shared on X on March 14, 2025.
It circulated after authorities retrieved the our bodies of dozens of individuals killed in a train siege by separatist gunmen in southwest Pakistan’s impoverished however mineral wealthy province of Balochistan (archived link).
The assault on the practice, which was carrying round 450 passengers, was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Military (BLA) — one among plenty of separatist teams that accuse outsiders of plundering the province.
“We weren’t taught to rejoice somebody’s loss of life, however Pakistanis celebrated the loss of life of 40 troopers within the Pulwama terrorist assault, now it’s our time,” the caption provides, referring to the positioning of a February 2019 suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir (archived link).
Relations between the 2 nuclear-armed South Asian nations nose-dived after the assault, which was claimed by Pakistan-based militants.
Screenshot of the false X put up, captured on April 2, 2025
The identical photograph was additionally shared in comparable posts on X and Facebook.
The circulating picture, nevertheless, is outdated.
A keyword search led to the identical photograph in AFP’s archives, the place its caption says it was launched by the military’s communication service on February 10, 2011.
It says it exhibits officers “providing prayers throughout the funeral service for the military troopers who had been killed in an assault by a teenage suicide bomber on Pakistani military recruits throughout a parade in Mardan, round 30 kms (20 miles) from the regional capital Peshawar on February 10, 2011”.
Screenshot comparability of the photograph within the false put up (left) and in AFP’s archives (proper)
A reverse image search on Google additionally led to the photograph printed in a report in regards to the assault by the British newspaper The Impartial (archived link).
AFP has fact-checked extra misrepresented visuals linked to the Pakistan train hijacking.
