Old video misrepresented as assault on Afghan refugees in Pakistan
- Published on November 26, 2025 at 07:25
- Updated on November 26, 2025 at 07:49
- 2 min read
- By Masroor GILANI, AFP Pakistan
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Pakistan has continued its campaign for repatriation of Afghan refugees, but a video circulating in posts falsely claiming it showed officials slapping and kicking a group of women they were about to evict from the country is old. The footage was shared in posts by media, a local government official and the police in February 2021 that said the officers were suspended and arrested for the violent act against Pakistani women suspected of links to a criminal gang.
"If you're going to evict Afghan nationals under (army chief) Asim Munir's law, then do it, but don't humiliate them," reads part of the Urdu-language caption of an X video shared on November 16, 2025.
"Why are you slapping women? Pakistani people were never such ruthless, heartless beasts. Who turned you into an animal?"
While Pakistan has hosted Afghans fleeing violence and humanitarian crises for more than four decades, Islamabad launched a crackdown in 2023 to evict them, citing an uptick in violent attacks and insurgent campaigns and painting the population as "terrorists and criminals" (archived link).
More than 1.2 million Afghans have since been forced to return from Pakistan, including more than 443,000 in 2025 alone, according to the United Nations.
The same video was also shared in similar Facebook and TikTok posts as relations between the neighbouring nations -- already fraught since the Taliban swept back into power in 2021 -- worsened after deadly border clashes in October killed around 70 people on both sides (archived link).
But the video is unrelated to the recent crackdown on Afghan refugees.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same footage posted on the verified Facebook page of the then-chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Mahmood Khan on February 3, 2021 (archived link).
"Five officials have been arrested for beating up women. Nobody will be allowed to take law into own hands: Chief Minister," read part of its Urdu-language caption.
Local police showed a clip from the video as part of a Facebook post confirming the arrest of the officers involved on February 3, 2021 (archived link).
According to coverage from Pakistani newspapers The Express Tribune and The News International, the incident occurred in the northwestern town of Saidu Sharif (archived here and here).
"Five police officers were booked in an FIR (First Information Report) for brutally and publicly beating up three women allegedly arrested for robbery in Swat on Wednesday," read The Express Tribune report.
"The women were slapped and kicked in broad daylight while being made to sit in a police van by officers of the Saidu Sharif Police Station, including its SHO (Station House Office), as well as an Assistant SHO of the Kokarai Police Station."
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