Claim: A video shows Pakistan in chaos, that is, they are facing a shortage of food and fighting over food items, as Afghanistan closed its borders for trade with Pakistan.
Fact: The video is at least three years old and is therefore not linked to the recent closure of borders between the two countries following clashes along the border in October 2025.
On 17 November, an X user posted a video (archive) that purportedly showed Pakistanis fighting over food items after Afghanistan closed its borders with Pakistan. “After Afghanistan closed trade with Pakistan, it looks like Pakistan is in full chaos.
Civil war jaisi halat ho gayi hain. Itni laraian ho rahi hain ke lagta hai civil war start ho gayi ho.”
In the clip, people appear to be fighting over food items covered in sacks.
Another X post that shared the same footage claimed: “#Afghanistan’s #economic_sanctions are crushing #Pakistan’s economy, and it’s the ordinary people who are paying the price. Hunger in #Pakistan is exploding at an alarming rate, families are starving while the #PakistanArmy elites fatten their wallets and snap up luxury villas in the US and Europe.”
Borders between the two countries have remained shut since October when clashes erupted along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. This has affected bilateral trade, as trucks and containers have remained stranded on both sides.
In November 2025, Reuters reported that Afghanistan was seeking alternative trading routes, mainly through Iran and Central Asia, to decrease its dependence on Pakistan.
The post claiming the video shows Pakistan in crisis refers to the trade closure between the two neighbours.
Afghanistan-Pakistan clashes
Afghan and Pakistani military forces exchanged heavy fire along the border on 11 October, marking a significant escalation between the neighbours.
The clashes reportedly erupted when Afghan troops attacked several Pakistani military posts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in retaliation for the alleged airstrikes by Pakistan inside its territory on 9 October. Afghanistan accused Pakistan of violating its sovereign territory by carrying out airstrikes in Kabul, a charge that the latter has neither denied nor confirmed.
Soon after, social media users speculated that the airstrike was meant to target Noor Wali Mehsud, the leader of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. It has not been independently verified if he was killed in the attack.
Pakistani forces retaliated against these attacks on 11 October.
Both sides made conflicting claims about the inflicted losses and casualties. Afghan authorities claimed that they had killed 58 Pakistani soldiers whereas Pakistan stated that 23 soldiers had been killed. Pakistan claimed that it had killed more than 200 “Taliban and affiliated terrorists.” But Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Taliban-led government, said that nine Afghan soldiers were killed in the overnight clashes with Pakistan. Soch Fact Check has not independently verified the casualties on both sides.
Pakistani authorities have long accused the Afghan Taliban government of harbouring the TTP that carries out attacks on Pakistani territory with impunity, a charge denied by Kabul.
Moreover, both countries also claimed to have destroyed each other’s border posts, Reuters reported.
On 15 October, Pakistan and Afghanistan reportedly continued to clash until agreeing to a temporary 48-hour ceasefire on the same day.
According to an AFP report, Afghan officials accused Pakistan of breaking the ceasefire by carrying out strikes inside Afghanistan on 17 October, which killed ten people and injured 12 others.
Then on 19 October, both neighbours agreed to an immediate ceasefire after peace talks in Doha, Qatar while further negotiations were scheduled to be held on 25 October in Istanbul, Turkey.
Although the border crossing between the two countries remains closed, it was only temporarily reopened for the repatriation of Afghan refugee families.
Geo News reported on 20 October that border crossings were likely to reopen. “The sources privy to the matter said that officials from both countries have agreed to reopen the border if no other dispute arises,” the report said.
Peace talks held in Istanbul between the two countries ended on 28 October without a resolution, Reuters reported.
The subsequent round of peace talks between the two countries failed in November 2025, Reuters reported.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the clip and found that it is not linked to the recent closure of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
On 10 January 2023, an X user posted the same video (archive) with the description that reads: “Current situation of Pakistan, where people are fighting for wheat flour. The agency who ranked Pakistan higher than India on Global Hunger Index has lost all its credibility.” Below is the side-by-side comparison of this clip with the one being fact-checked:
Left: the post being fact-checked. Right: the post that carries the same clip, from January 2023.
The same clip was also posted on X here (archive) in January 2023.
Reverse searches also led to the earliest versions of this footage from September 2022. An X user posted this video on 11 September 2022 here (archive). Another such post that shared a similar video on 6 September 2022 stated [translated from Urdu]: “Flood relief has become a headache for flood victims”.
The same video was also posted on Facebook on 6 September 2022.
On Reddit, the exact footage (archive) appeared on 12 September 2022, with the following description: “Economic conditions are very bad in pakistan. People are literaly fighting for food. This is scary.” This confirms that the video is at least three years old and therefore not linked to the current border closures between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Soch Fact Check therefore rates the claim false as the footage has appeared as early as September 2022.
Virality
The video appeared on X here, here, and here.
On Facebook here.
On Threads here.
Conclusion: The video does not show Pakistan in chaos after the closure of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan as it appeared online as early as September 2022.
Background image in cover photo: Reuters
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