Video shows victims of Pakistan sectarian attack, not 'martyred Imran Khan supporters'
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 6, 2023 at 07:58
- 4 min read
- By AFP Pakistan
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"The release of Khan is the result of the sacrifices of these martyrs, they can never be forgotten," reads the Urdu-language caption of a video shared on Twitter here on May 12, 2023.
The video, which has been shared more than 11,800 times, shows people carrying coffins through a street as a freedom song plays in the background.
It circulated following days of deadly unrest in Pakistan sparked by the arrest and brief detention of Khan. At least nine people died in the week of tumult, police and hospitals have said, AFP reported.
The 70-year-old Khan -- still staggeringly popular after being ousted last April -- was manhandled into custody on graft charges by paramilitary Rangers during a routine appearance at Islamabad High Court on May 9.
The arrest brought his supporters onto the streets with government buildings set ablaze, roads blocked and damage to property belonging to the army, which they blame for Khan's downfall.
Khan was freed on bail three days later after his detention was declared unlawful by the Supreme Court and claimed he was "treated like a terrorist".
Similar videos were shared elsewhere on Twitter here, here and here, and on Facebook here, here and here.
Comments on the posts suggest some users were misled.
"Ya Allah give their families patience. Ultimate sacrifice for freedom and democracy. They are not losers but real winners. Respect to these martyrs!" read one comment.
Another said: "All of our brave PTI martyrs since yesterday should be buried in Pakistani flags, with equal honours to Shuhadaa (martyrs) of the Pakistan army. So this monopoly of who's a militant and who's a Shaheed (martyr) would end once and for all. These are heroes of the nation. Proud of you, my brothers."
But the video has been shared with false context. It has previously circulated in connection with the killing of Shiite Muslims in northwestern Pakistan days before Khan's arrest.
Sectarian attack
A keyword search on Google led to a clip published on video-sharing platform TikTok on May 5 with the caption: "7 Shia brutally Killed in Parachnar (sic)" (archived link).
Parachinar is a town in Kurram district, in northwest Pakistan (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in one of the false posts (left) and the TikTok video (right):
A photo of the same funeral was included in an Associated Press (AP) report published on May 5 (archived link).
Its caption says: "Shiite Muslims carry the coffins of teachers killed by unknown gunmen in an attack during their funeral in Parachinar, a town of Kurram district in the Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan, Friday, May 5, 2023. Gunmen stormed a school in Pakistan's volatile northwest on Thursday, killing multiple teachers and gunning down another teacher from the school in a separate attack."
Below is a screenshot comparison of one false post (left) and the AP photo (right), with matching features highlighted by AFP.
The three white domes visible in both the video used in the false tweet and the AP photo correspond with satellite imagery on Google Maps here (archived link).
The shootings were also reported by AFP and Pakistan's Dawn newspaper (archived links here and here).
AFP reported five teachers were among eight people killed in rural Pakistan as a long-simmering row between Sunni and Shiite Muslims erupted into deadly violence.
Local police and officials said two gunmen entered a school in the remote border town of Teri Mangal in Kurram district -- less than a kilometre (mile) from the Afghan border -- as teachers gathered exam papers students had completed earlier in the day.
Sectarian tensions stretch back decades and have practically divided the district in two, said Akhtar Ali Shah, a former provincial police chief.
An AFP video of the funeral shows the same ceremony from a different angle (archived link).
Below is a screenshot of a frame from AFP's video of the funeral:
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