Unrelated fire clip misrepresented as Pakistan train hijacking

Published on March 26, 2025 at 05:25
Updated on March 26, 2025 at 05:30
3 min read
By Masroor GILANI, AFP Pakistan

As Baloch separatists hijacked a train in southwest Pakistan on March 11, social media users shared footage of a huge fire and falsely claimed it depicted the deadly two-day attack that left dozens on board dead. In fact, the video showed an unrelated incident in the South Asian nation's largest city, Karachi.

"A train has been burnt in Balochistan by BLA militants who have also taken more than 100 passengers hostage," reads part of an Urdu-language Facebook post that shared the clip on March 11, 2024.

The post surfaced as Baloch separatists attacked a train with 450 passengers on board, sparking a two-day siege which officials said left around 60 dead, half of whom were members of the group that carried out the assault (archived link).

The assaults were claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of a number of separatist groups that accuse outsiders of plundering natural resources in Balochistan near the borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

Screenshot taken on March 17, 2025 of the false Facebook post

Similar posts on Facebook and X also misrepresented the footage of people watching a huge fire column from the roadside as the train attack.

However, a reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the clip led to a March 10 report containing similar visuals from Pakistan broadcaster Geo News about a fire in Karachi's Gulshan-e-Maymar neighbourhood (archived link).

Screenshots comparison of the false post (left) and the Geo television report (right)

Pakistan's Dawn newspaper also reported the fire on the same day. It said a gas cylinder exploded in an eatery which triggered the blaze that burned over 100 shops in the area but caused no fatalities (archived link).

The emergency rescue service in Sindh province, where Karachi is located, also shared a video of the fire on Facebook on March 10 (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (L) and the corresponding clip Sindh province's emergency rescue service

Visuals of the train siege site from the Pakistan army show no road near the railway track unlike the circulating clip (archived link).

"The incident site is a rugged terrain and away from population. The road is 21 kilometres away from the train site," army spokesman Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told reporters.

Screenshot of the train attack site location shared by Pakistan's army

AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the train attack.

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