Old footage of burning plane falsely linked to Pakistan air force base attack

"Multiple 'suicide bombers' attacked a Pakistan Air Force base in Mianwali," reads a November 4 post written in Urdu on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"According to reports, 40 aircraft were damaged."

The post, which has more than 169,000 views, shows a burning plane emblazoned with the Pakistani national flag.

Pakistan's military said its forced killed nine armed men who attacked an air force training base in the city of Mianwali in central Punjab province.

"Some damage was done to three already phased out non-operational aircraft during the attack," it said, without elaborating.

The Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), a newly emerged militant group that is an affiliate of the home-grown Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

While attacks in Punjab province are rare, analysts say militant groups have become emboldened by the return to power of the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Image

Screenshot of the false X post, captured on November 21, 2023

The footage attracted hundreds of thousands of views in similar posts here and here.

May 2023 protest video

A reverse image search on Google found the video in news reports and social media posts from May 2023 about protests that swept Pakistan following the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan.

Khan was detained during a court appearance in Islamabad for one of dozens of cases pending against him since he was ousted in April 2021 (archived link).

Enraged by his arrest, supporters set fire to government buildings, blocked roads and damaged property belonging to the military, which they blame for Khan's downfall.

The clip was shared on X here and here on May 9, in posts that said it was taken in front of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base in Mianwali (archived links here and here).

India's Hindustan Times newspaper also published the footage in a report about the protests (archived link).

The report's description says supporters of Khan set fire to a "dummy aircraft" outside the military base in Mianwali.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the false post (left) and the clip used in the Hindustan Times report (right):

Image

Screenshot comparison between the video in the false post (left) and the clip used in the Hindustan Times report ((right)

Local news channel Aaj TV broadcast footage appearing to show the same aircraft on fire, but filmed from a different angle, which can be seen from the 1:05 mark of their report from May 17 (archived link).

Al Jazeera English also shared footage of the blaze filmed from a different angle in a news report titled "Pakistan unrest: Thousands of Imran Khan's party workers arrested" (archived link). The footage can be seen from the 49 second mark.

Pakistan's Daily Jang newspaper reported on May 15 that the installation had been repaired, and journalist Shiraz Hassan also posted a video of the aircraft (archived links here and here).