Video of armed Afghan rebels predates latest India-Pakistan conflict

"Revenge for Pahalgam is not over yet… We will not stop until we hunt down and kill every single ISI terrorist responsible in Pakistan or elsewhere: Liberation Front of Afghanistan officially warns," reads the Hindi-language caption of a Facebook video shared on July 4, 2025.

"ISI" refers to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

The video, which has a logo for the Liberation Front of Afghanistan in the bottom-left corner and appears to show four masked individuals holding guns speaking to camera, has its audio dubbed over into English at its 20-second mark.

They appear to speak about "vengeance" for Pahalgam -- the site in Indian-administered Kashmir where gunmen killed 26 mostly Hindu tourists on April 22 (archived link).

New Delhi said the gunmen were backed by Pakistan, claims Islamabad rejected -- triggering a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures which escalated into a four-day conflict that killed more than 70 people on both sides before a May 10 ceasefire (archived link).

"This isn't about Kashmir or Afghanistan anymore. This is about dismantling ISI's terror syndicate -- cell by cell, soul by soul," the gunmen purportedly add. 

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on July 7, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The video also circulated in similar Facebook, Instagram and X posts.

"All countries should unite and take strict action against terrorism," read a comment on one post. 

Another said: "Pakistan under attack from all sides."

But the video predates the Pahalgam attack and ensuing conflict between India and Pakistan by three years.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same footage published on February 4, 2022 on the "Liberation Front AFG" Facebook page (archived link). The page has been inactive since April 2022.

The footage has neither English-language audio nor subtitles.

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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the Liberation Front AFG Facebook clip (right)

Screenshots from the video were also shared in reports about the group published by Afghanistan International and Al-Ain News in February 2022 (archived here and here).

According to the reports, the group said the Taliban's actions in arresting journalists, suppressing women and marginalising them were among the reasons for their uprising. There is no mention of India or Pahalgam in the reports.

The conflict between India and Pakistan triggered a wave of misinformation, which AFP debunked here.

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