Claim: Three pictures show children who were killed in an operation conducted by security forces against terrorists in Bajaur towards the end of July 2025.
Fact: All three pictures are unrelated to the security operation in Bajaur in July 2025. One of them shows a child who died due to an aerial firing incident. The second is from 2020 and likely shows a minor who died in a bombing in Afghanistan, and the third one shows a Syrian child injured during an airstrike in Idlib, also in 2020.
[Content warning: This fact-check contains bodies of children.]
At the end of July 2025, three different images of children surfaced on social media, with users linking it to the Pakistani security forces’ operation against terrorists in the Bajaur district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (archived here, here, and here).
The first image, which is one of four posted (archive) on 29 July by Facebook user ‘Noor bacha’, includes the hashtag “#bajaurunderstateattack” and is captioned as follows:
“باجوڑ میں سکیورٹی فورسز کی آپریشن میں کم عمر بچہ زخموں کی تاب نہ لاتے ہوئے شہید ہوگیا، کیا یہ ننا پھول جیسا بچہ بھی دہشت گرد تھا، کون دیگا اسکا جواب،
[A young child was martyred as he succumbed to his injuries from an operation by security forces in Bajaur. Was this innocent child also a terrorist? Who will answer for this?]”
The caption for the second picture is the same as the first sentence of the aforementioned text.
The third photo, on the other hand, is accompanied by the following caption:
“باجوڑ کےایک شہید بچے نے اپنے آنسو سے برے ہوئے آنکھیں اللہ کے پاس پورے پشتونوں کا فریاد لیے کرگیا💔🥲
[A martyred child from Bajaur, his eyes filled with tears, took the entire Pashtun people’s cry for help to Allah💔🥲]”
Operation Sarbakaf in Bajaur
In late July 2025, Pakistani security forces launched Operation Sarbakaf, deploying army troops and using gunship helicopters and artillery to target militants in Bajaur.
A three-day curfew was imposed across 16 villages from 29 to 31 July. “At least four suspected terrorists were killed, 12 wounded, and around 10 others were captured alive”, reports citing security sources said.
“At least 7 Pakistani Taliban affiliates have been killed and 11 critically injured”, The Khorasan Diary said in a 29 July update, citing security sources. The latest operation comes following an attack on the Thangi checkpost in Bajaur.
There were a total of “215 fatalities, including 37 security personnel, 124 militants, and 54 civilians” in at least “82 militant attacks and dozens of security operations [that] took place across the country in July”, Anadolu Agency reported on 6 August 2025, citing data from the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS). Terror attacks in Bajaur “have increased in recent months”, it said in an article in July 2025.
On 10 July, Awami National Party (ANP) leader Maulana Khan Zeb and two others were shot dead. Prior to that, Khar Assistant Commissioner Faisal Ismail was killed on 2 July in a bomb blast.
On 13 July, the “Bajaur Aman Pasoon,” or the Bajaur Peace Rally, attracted thousands of people “carrying white flags and white banners inscribed with various slogans in support of peace”. Participants raised concerns about and condemned “lawlessness and targeted killings”.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government — led by the incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — has opposed the operation. Gul Zafar Khan, a former lawmaker associated with the party, alleged that it was “being used as an excuse, perhaps to seize our mineral resources”.
ANP President Aimal Wali Khan also criticised the operation, claiming that innocent people were killed, and called on the violence to stop.
Similarly, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) stated that it could not extend support, with its spokesperson Aslam Ghauri saying common people were affected and issues “were neither resolved through force in the past nor will they be in the future”.
Condemning the latest action, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JIP) leader Mushtaq Ahmad asserted in a statement that Operation Sarbakaf “was started by bypassing the provincial assembly, federal parliament, local jirgas, and elders”.
According to Voicepk.net, “a 12-year-old boy and a young girl” were among three civilians who were reportedly killed and “12 others were injured”. Residents launched a protest against the military operation, it added.
As of writing time, a “conditional” ceasefire has been reached between a jirga — an assembly of community elders — in Bajaur and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders. Both parties have agreed that the ceasefire will hold “until the conflict was completely resolved through talks”, Dawn reported.
Fact or Fiction?
Using reverse image search tools, we were able to trace the photo back to 22 July, days before the start of the security forces’ operation. It was posted by X (formerly Twitter) user @ahmadbansaj alongside the following caption:
“پشاور میں ہوائی فائرنگ کا ناسور تھانہ مچنی گیٹ کی حدود میں گزشتہ روز ہوائی فائرنگ سے زخمی ہونے والا بچہ دم توڑ گیا۔ کیا کوئی قانون ہے اس ملک میں ۔اس پر قتل اور دہشت گردی کے دفعات ہونے چاہئے۔
[The curse of aerial firing in Peshawar. A child injured in the aerial firing yesterday in the Michni Gate police station’s jurisdiction has died. Is there any law in this country? There should be provisions for murder and terrorism for this.]”
The image was shared on the same date with the same context on Facebook here and here.
The 28 July 2025 post by Facebook user ‘Noor bacha’ — which includes the first image — also contains another photo, showing a helicopter apparently shooting flares in a valley. This is also incorrectly linked to Bajaur and is actually old.
The original picture, which we traced to an article published on 12 April 2012 in TIME (archive), is from Afghanistan and credited to the US Department of Defense. It is accompanied by the following caption:
“An AH-64 Apache helicopter shoots flares over a valley to support members of the 8th Commando Kandak and coalition special operations forces during a firefight near Nawa Garay village, Kajran district, Daykundi province, Afghanistan, April 3. Coalition SOF partners with the 8th Commando Kandak to conduct operations throughout Daykundi, Uruzgan, and Zabul provinces.”
It was also posted on Flickr by an account named “U.S. Central Command” — it is unclear if this is the USCENTCOM’s official one — where it is said to have been taken on 3 April 2012.
The second picture we’re investigating can be found online as early as 2020 and seems to be linked to Afghanistan as well. It appeared in a 3 October 2020 article (archive) on the website of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), titled “Deadly car bomb in Nangarhar kills 15 civilians including 4 kids.” The accompanying caption reads, “Injured children are carried to the hospital following a car bomb attack that targeted a government building.”
The same image was also posted in the same timeframe on X and Instagram by Pajhwok Afghan News, Afghan politician Mohammad Halim Fidai, and Zindabad Afghanistan Magazine.
The third picture, on the other hand, appears at the 1:40 mark in a video uploaded on YouTube on 14 January 2020. Since it contains the Agence France-Presse’s (AFP) logo, we searched Getty Images and found it available here; it was taken by Omar Haj Kadour and is caption as follows:
“An injured Syrian child cries after being transported to a clinic for treatment following an air strike by pro-regime forces on the nothwestern (sic) city of Idlib on January 11, 2020.”
Therefore, Soch Fact Check concludes that none of these images depict minors who were wounded or killed allegedly during Pakistani security forces’ operation in Bajaur in July 2025.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the pictures circulating here, here, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here, here, here, here, here, and here on Instagram, and here and here on Threads.
They also went viral on X and can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: All three pictures are unrelated to the security operation in Bajaur in July 2025 and have appeared online before the operation began. One image seems to show a child who died due to an aerial firing incident. The second one may be linked to a 2020 bombing in Afghanistan, and the third one shows a Syrian child injured during an airstrike in Idlib, also from 2020.
Background image in cover photo: Google Maps
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