Security personnel secure a street after a blast in a religious school in Peshawar on October 27, 2020. - At least four students were killed and dozens more wounded on October 27 when a bomb exploded during a class at their religious school in Pakistan, officials said. (Photo by Abdul MAJEED / AFP) (AFP / Abdul Majeed)

Unrelated photos shared in online posts about deadly bombing at Islamic school in Pakistan

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on November 10, 2020 at 11:10
  • 3 min read
  • By AFP Pakistan

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Two photos — one showing a pen and a pencil lying in a pool of blood and another showing an injured child — have been shared thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook and Twitter alongside a claim they reveal the aftermath of a bombing at an Islamic seminary in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in October 2020. The claim, however, is false; the photos have circulated online in unrelated reports since August 2018 and January 2020 respectively.

Pen and pencil photo

The first photo was published on Facebook here on October 27, 2020. The post has been shared 4,700 times.

The post’s Urdu-language caption translates to English as: "Allah may protect all religious schools."

The text above the image reads: “The nation is totally silent because funerals are of religious students. #Peshawarblast.”

A screenshot taken on November 9, 2020 of the misleading Facebook post

The post circulated the same day a bombing was detonated at a religious school in Peshawar, killing at least seven students and wounding scores more, AFP reported here.

The photo was also shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here, here and here and on Twitter here.

The claim is false.

A reverse image search on Google found the photo has circulated online since 2018, two years before the Peshawar bombing. 

It can be seen here and here in reports published in August 2018 about a road accident in Bangladesh. 

Below is a screenshot comparison of the misleading post (L) and the 2018 blog post (R):

A screenshot comparison of the misleading post (L) and the 2018 blog post (R)

Injured child photo
 

The second photo showing a wounded child was published on Facebook here on October 27, 2020. The post has been shared 476 times. 

The post’s Urdu-language caption translates to English as: “Today the tearful eyes of this martyred child in a bomb blast at the religious seminary in Peshawar are asking the rulers of the state what was his fault?”

Screenshot taken on November 9, 2020 of the misleading Facebook post

The photo was also shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here and here.

The claim is false.

A reverse image search on Google found the photo was published by Getty Images here in January 2020, ten months before the Peshawar bombing. 

The photo's caption states it shows a child in Syria who was wounded in an airstrike.

A screenshot taken on November 9, 2020, of an injured Syrian child photo by Getty Images

The photo’s caption reads: “EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / An injured Syrian child cries after being transported to a clinic for treatment following an air strike by pro-regime forces on the nothwestern city of Idlib on January 11, 2020. (Photo by Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP) (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images).”

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