Claim: A video and an image show soldiers of the Pakistan Army surrendering to Afghan forces in the recent escalations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Fact: The claim is false as both visuals included in the clip have been shared online in the past: The post carries two things,:
- Video: The video was linked to the September 2023 attacks in Chitral while some reports date it back to the 2009 attacks in South Waziristan.
- Image: The image has been available online since 2016 and has been repeatedly linked to clashes between Pak-Afghan forces over the years.
On 12 October 2025, an X (formerly Twitter) account, AsiaWarZone, posted a video with the caption, “The surrendered Army surrendered at hypersonic speed in any conflict.”
On the right side, an image shows captive soldiers with their hands tied to their backs and on the left, a minute-long video shows a group of armed men pelting stones at the Pakistani flags painted on the walls of a dilapidated building.
Clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan
Dozens of fighters were killed in overnight border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan on 12 October, Reuters quoted both sides as saying and termed it “the most serious fighting between the neighbouring countries since the Taliban came to power in Kabul”.
According to officials, Afghan troops opened fire on Pakistani army posts along the north-western border on Saturday, 11 October, and seized several of the posts, The Guardian reported. The attacks came after the Taliban regime in Afghanistan accused Pakistan of carrying out airstrikes on the country’s sovereign territory, particularly in the capital of Kabul, earlier that week. On 12 October, Pakistan responded with retaliatory airstrikes, gunfire, and ground raids targeting Afghan Taliban posts along the border.
In a statement, the media wing of the Pakistan military reported that 23 soldiers were killed and 29 others wounded in the attacks, The Guardian’s report added. The statement further claimed that 200 “Taliban and affiliated terrorists” were killed in the retaliatory strikes and that several terrorist training camps had been dismantled.
Ceasefire between Pakistan, Afghanistan
On 15 October, the state-owned Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) reported that “Afghanistan was seeking a ceasefire on the border near the village of Chaman where the fighting was concentrated”, according to The Washington Post (archive).
Since 10 October, “at least 18 people have been killed and more than 360 wounded” on the Afghanistan side, Arab News reported, quoting a statement issued by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
The two countries agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire effective as of 6 pm on 15 October, according to a media report. On 19 October, both countries signed a ceasefire agreement in Doha, Qatar, followed by three days of peace talks in Istanbul. However, as per the latest reports, the peace talks ended on 28 October without any resolution.
Fact or Fiction?
To investigate, we verified the video on the left first, followed by the image on the right.
1. Video Verification:
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse image search on the video keyframes. The results on Google led to a longer version of the clip posted on 12 September 2023 on X. According to its caption, the video shows “Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters roaming around the destroyed #PakArmy HQ in #Chitral”.
In the longer clip, armed men can be seen entering an abandoned and dilapidated building which has the Pakistan Army’s official emblem on the entrance. The video was widely shared across social media and linked to September 2023, when the TTP attacked two military checkposts in the Chitral area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In these clashes, four military officers and 12 TTP fighters were killed, according to Al Jazeera.
However, Iftikhar Firdous – journalist and founder of The Khorasan Diary rebuffed the video on 12 September 2023, saying it does not show Chitral but is actually from the 2009 attacks in Sararogha, South Waziristan.
To further investigate, we conducted a keyword search on Google, which led to news reports from January 2008 saying the Taliban attacked the Sararogha Fort in South Waziristan. However, there is no evidence to confirm that the alleged video is from the same time and shows the Sararogha Fort.
2. Image Verification:
To investigate the image, we conducted a reverse image search which led to a post on Facebook, published on 15 April 2018. In the post, the same image is accompanied by other images of injured soldiers.
The post’s Pashto caption, when translated into English, reads:
“Khost Governor Zazai has reached the ground to raise the morale of soldiers and people. People are still fighting with soldiers shoulder to shoulder, and it is said that two Pakistani soldiers have also died due to injuries.”
Furthermore, Soch Fact Check found that the same image was also shared in another Facebook post on 15 June 2016. The Pashto language post caption reads as follows in English:
“Pakistani media says that Afghan forces have destroyed [it]. 25 Pakistani soldiers dead, 27 wounded and there are concerns that the death toll will rise. If you are happy, then you must share.”
Soch Fact Check could not independently verify the video’s origin or the image’s location, but it is clear that the video predates the recent clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2025.
Virality
On X, the viral post garnered 341.1K views, 7,500 likes, 1,500 reposts and 291 comments. India-based accounts mostly shared it and can be seen here, here and here. It was also posted here, here and here by other accounts.
It was also shared here, here, and here on Facebook.
Conclusion: The video and image in the claim do not show Pakistani soldiers surrendering to Afghan forces in the October 2025 clashes between the two countries. The visuals are old and unrelated to the recent escalations.
Background image in cover photo: Google Gemini
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