Old photo shows Pakistani flag burned in Afghanistan, not border region

Published on February 14, 2025 at 08:28
3 min read
By Rimal FARRUKH, AFP Pakistan

Following a deadly ambush on a Pakistan convoy bringing supplies to Kurram, a region bordering Afghanistan, social media posts falsely claimed a photo showed residents burning the Pakistani flag. The photo was taken in Afghanistan's Kunar province in May 2013 following a series of anti-Pakistan protests that erupted after border clashes between the two neighbouring countries.

"This is their truth. Today, in the Bagan area, the people burned the Pakistani flag in broad daylight and proved their Afghan identity," reads an Urdu-language X post shared January 20, 2025.

The post implies residents in the town of Bagan are aligning themselves with Afghanistan and against the Pakistani state.

Screenshot of the false post taken February 12, 2025

Bagan is located in Kurram, a Pakistani region in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Pakistan is a Sunni-majority country, but Kurram has a large Shiite population and has been wracked by violence for decades.

Around 150 people have been killed in a fresh round of fighting that erupted in November 2024 (archived link). As feuding tribes battle with machine guns and heavy weapons, the remote and mountainous region has been largely cut off from the outside world.

Similar posts about flag burning spread elsewhere on Facebook in late January 2025 -- days after gunmen ambushed a Pakistan convoy taking vital supplies to the region, despite a truce ordering warring tribes to lay down arms. At least 10 people died in the attack (archived link).

Comments indicate some users believed the claim.

"May they be damned for burning our flag," one person wrote.

"A curse on them," another said.

But the photo was taken in Afghanistan.

A reverse image search on TinEye led to a picture published by Mediafax Foto, a photo agency based in Romania (archived links here and here). The photo is credited to AFP.

"Afghan protesters burn a Pakistan flag during a demonstration in Asad Abad, the capital of Kunar province on May 14, 2013. Hundreds of residents of Kunar province from different districts protested against rocket attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan," the caption says.

Afghan protesters burn a Pakistan flag during a demonstration in Asad Abad, the capital of Kunar province on May 14, 2013 (AFP / Noorullah Shirzada)

The protests in Kunar took place alongside several others elsewhere in Afghanistan following border clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces (archived links here and here).

AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about Pakistan here.

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