Fire in Pakistani city caused by short circuit, not Afghanistan drone
- Published on October 28, 2025 at 10:15
- 2 min read
- By Rimal FARRUKH, AFP Pakistan
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Shortly before a ceasefire brought an end to a week of violence along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in which dozens of troops and civilians were killed, a video of a fire at a plaza in Peshawar was shared in posts falsely claiming it was the result of an Afghan drone attack. A rescue official told AFP the fire was in fact caused by an electrical short circuit, and there have been no official reports of a drone attack in the northwestern Pakistani city.
The video of a unit in a building engulfed in flames has been viewed more than 29,000 times since it was shared in an X post on October 15, 2025.
"In the Pakistani province of Peshawar, an Afghan Air Force drone specifically targeted a room in a plaza near Bala Hisar that was being used as a secret office for special Pakistani intelligence activities," reads its English-language caption, incorrectly referring to the Pakistani city as a province.
The footage surfaced shortly before Pakistani and Afghan authorities announced a two-day truce in the wake of cross-border clashes that saw dozens of troops and civilians on both sides killed (archived link).
The clashes were sparked by an explosion in Kabul on October 9, which Taliban officials blamed on Pakistan.
Pakistan -- which is facing a resurgence of attacks against its security forces on its western border with Afghanistan led by the Pakistani Taliban and its affiliates -- has accused Kabul of harbouring militant groups on its soil. Kabul denies the accusation.
The video was also shared in similar Facebook, YouTube and X posts.
But, as of October 28, there have been no official reports of an Afghan drone attack in Peshawar.
A keyword search on Google led to news reports about a fire that broke out at the Ittehad plaza in Peshawar, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on October 15, as well as social media posts containing similar footage of the fire (archived here and here).
According to the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency, Rescue 1122 emergency services workers quickly extinguished the fire. Neither the news reports nor the social media posts mention of a drone attack on the building.
Rescue 1122's provincial spokesperson for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bilal Ahmad told AFP on October 17: "The fire occurred in Ittehad market due to short circuiting on the first floor which caused the fire to erupt."
"There was no drone attack."
AFP has also debunked other false claims about the Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict.
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