Deadly Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes spark false forgiveness claims
- Published on October 16, 2025 at 11:14
- 2 min read
- By Rimal FARRUKH, AFP Pakistan
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A ceasefire halted deadly cross-border skirmishes between Afghanistan and Pakistan that killed dozens in October, but online claims that Kabul's Taliban government asked Islamabad for forgiveness are unfounded. The false posts, which circulated widely among Pakistani social media users, feature a forged news report.
"Indeed, God likes those who forgive. We ask Pakistan for forgiveness," says Urdu-language text on a graphic purportedly published by major Pakistani broadcaster Geo News.
It was shared on X on October 12 and features a picture of Afghanistan's Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, suggesting he issued the supposed remarks.
Similar posts also surfaced widely on Facebook and X the day after Afghanistan's Taliban forces launched attacks on Pakistani troops along their shared border, in what it called "retaliation for air strikes carried out by the Pakistani army on Kabul" (archived link).
Islamabad has not directly claimed responsibility for the strikes, but has repeatedly stated the right to defend itself against surging militancy that it says is planned from Afghan soil.
The two sides have repeatedly clashed in border regions since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban government spokesman, said that 58 Pakistani soldiers were killed during clashes on October 12 and around 30 wounded, while nine Taliban forces were killed.
The Pakistani military, meanwhile, said 23 of its soldiers and more than 200 Taliban and affiliated troops were killed.
A 48-hour ceasefire took hold late October 15, officials on both sides said (archived link).
However, there have been no official reports that Afghanistan's Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani had asked for forgiveness from Pakistan.
Geo News head of digital output Manzar Elahi denied the organisation published the report.
"The post circulating on social media is false. Our newsroom has not published any such news," Elahi told AFP on October 15.
A review of the Geo News website as well as its X, Facebook and Instagram accounts found no trace of the circulating graphic (archived here, here, here and here).
Moreover, the false post does not match the format of genuine Geo News Facebook posts, which include an attribution and lists the name and title of the person being quoted.
A reverse image search on Google found Sirajuddin Haqqani's photo in an old report from Arab News, credited to AFP (archived link).
The same picture is available on AFP's archives. Its caption reads: "Minister of Interior affairs of Afghanistan, Sirajuddin Haqqani speaks during an inauguration ceremony of a 5000-bed rehabilitation camp for drug addicts, at the interior ministry in Kabul on February 1, 2023."
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