Video shows Pakistan gunmen's old warning to China, not after train siege

Published on March 24, 2025 at 10:06
3 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

Following a deadly train siege in southwest Pakistan in March, a video supposedly showing the gunmen threatening violence against China surfaced online. The separatist group that claimed the attack has regularly targeted Beijing's interests in Pakistan's Balochistan province but the footage shows an earlier threat from May 2019.

"BREAKING: Baloch Liberation Army issues a chilling warning to China and Pakistan: 'Withdraw from Balochistan if you don't want to die,'" reads part of a March 12, 2025 X post that shared the clip.

It surfaced after the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for bombing a railway track in southwest Balochistan province and storming a train on March 11. Officials said the siege resulted in around 60 deaths, half of whom were separatists behind the assault (archived link).

The BLA is one of the separatist groups that accuse outsiders of plundering the impoverished but mineral-rich province that borders Iran and Afghanistan. It has regularly targeted Chinese nationals and interests in the area, where Beijing is involved in lucrative mining and energy projects (archived link).

Screenshot of the false post, taken on March 21, 2025

Similar posts on X and Facebook have also falsely presented the clip of masked gunmen threatening Pakistan and China as recent.

But a reverse image search of the clip's keyframes on Google found it corresponds to a screenshot published on May 19, 2019 in a report from the local outlet Balochistan Post (archived link).

"BLA Majid Brigade releases new video message," reads the headline of the report, which also says the BLA released a 25-minute clip following its attack on the luxury Pearl Continental Hotel in Gwadar on Pakistan's southern coast.

Chinese and Pakistani investors visiting the hotel were the target, a spokesman for the BLA said at the time (archived link).

The hotel sits isolated on a ridge overlooking the Arabian Sea port city that was formerly a small fishing village and is now the flagship project of the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, a part of China's Belt and Road initiative.

The CPEC seeks to connect the western Chinese province of Xinjiang with Gwadar, with the development of the port as the plan's flagship project (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the false post video (L) and the clip from 2019

A Google keyword search also surfaced an archived version of the video dated May 19, 2019. Reports about the hotel attack also referred to the clip (archived here and here).

AFP has not found official reports the BLA released footage warning Pakistan and China after the train siege in March.

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