Claim: An image shows a child trying to drag his mother’s dead body out of water in Pakistan after torrential rains during the 2025 monsoon season left multiple areas flooded.
Fact: The photo is from a scripted video made by an Indian content creator, apparently for entertainment.
On 10 September 2025, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) posted (archive) an image on X (formerly Twitter), allegedly showing a child trying to drag his deceased mother’s body out of water. The post, which has now been deleted, implies that they were displaced during the deadly 2025 monsoon season that left multiple areas flooded across the country.
The photo was accompanied with the following caption:
“جب عوام اس حد بےبسی کو پہنچتے ہیں تو نیپآل جیسے حالات پیدا ہوتے ہیں۔ جب زندگی اور موت میں زیادہ فرق نہ رہ جائے اور اشرافیہ تمام تر ذرائع پر قابض ہوجائے تو حقیقی آزادی لازم ہوجاتی ہے۔
[When the masses reach this level of helplessness, situations like Nepal arise. When there is not much difference between life and death and the elite controls all the resources, then true freedom becomes necessary.]”
The caption included the hashtag, “#فوکس_صرف_عمران_خان_پر [#FocusOnlyOnImranKhan]”. The X post garnered at least 46,300 views before it was deleted.
Monsoon causes destruction in Pakistan
Pakistan’s monsoon season began in June 2025, wreaking havoc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Punjab, and Sindh. Coupled with the release of water from Indian dams, heavy rains contributed to widespread flooding due to overflowing rivers, including Sutlej, Chenab, and Ravi.
Swollen rivers and floodwater submerged the villages, agricultural land, and residential areas situated along the edge of the rivers in Punjab.
The overall death toll from flash floods in Pakistan was over 1,000 as of 19 September, according to data (archive) compiled by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which revealed that more than 500 of these fatalities were in KP.
Additionally, upwards of 1,000 people have been injured, 229,000 houses destroyed, and 22,000 livestock have perished since 6 June, according to the NDMA.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched the image and found that it appeared in a 5 September 2025 post (archive) on X, where user @patel_ashish01 wrote the following (translated from Hindi by the platform’s AI chatbot Grok):
“#Pilibhit Bhura Magarsa resident Chhapri creator Aarti Gangwar is making videos by putting her own life at risk for social media content and spreading false rumors in society. @pilibhitpolice take immediate action, as she has previously made derogatory remarks against Bareilly’s reputation multiple times. @bareillypolice @Uppolice”
Pilibhit is a district in India’s Uttar Pradesh state. Its designated police responded to the X post, stating that the Jahanabad Police Station’s in-charge inspector was “instructed to investigate and take necessary legal action”.
Seeing this post, we searched for Aarti Gangwar, an Indian digital content creator who has a presence on Facebook and Instagram. It appears that she has posted multiple videos at the same scene with water, indicating that the clips are scripted and posted, likely for entertainment. Some of these can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Soch Fact Check found the video from which the viral image appears to have been taken.
Moreover, we came across an article by Fact Crescendo, an Indian outlet accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which Soch Fact Check is also a signatory. The organisation debunked the claim when the video went viral in India too.
Fact Crescendo shared that on 8 September 2025, Gangwar, the content creator, uploaded a video to issue a clarification. It is accompanied by the caption, which, when translated into English, reads, “Friends, please do not spread too many rumours about my video, my family was with me 🙏”.
She explained, “I want to talk about something important, so listen carefully. Two days ago, I made videos in the water. Some people have been spreading a lot of rumours that I died. When I made those videos, my family was with me. Don’t take it seriously. I haven’t died yet. I’m alive for you all. […] My content is for comedy, I make people laugh. I haven’t done anything or anyone wrong. It was just a video for laughs.”
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that not only is the image not from Pakistan, it is a screenshot from a scripted video made by an Indian content creator.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim circulating here, here, and here on X.
It was also posted here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here, here, and here on Instagram, and here and here on Threads.
The video was also shared here on YouTube and a screenshot from it was posted on TikTok.
Conclusion: The photo is from a scripted video made by an Indian content creator, apparently for entertainment.
Background image in cover photo: Google Maps
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