Claim: A video shows a crashed Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter jet on fire after it was shot down by Afghanistan’s Taliban forces.
Fact: The claim is false. The video predates the October 2025 clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Moreover, there are no reliable reports of Afghan Taliban shooting down a PAF jet.
On 12 October 2025, Facebook page ‘Mma Afg’ posted (archive) a video showing a crashed fighter jet ablaze, alongside the following caption in Dari:
“طالبان کاری خود را به درستی انجام داده!
[The Taliban did their job right!]”
Moreover, the clip also includes superimposed text in Dari — a dialect of Persian spoken in Afghanistan — that reads as follows:
“طالبان اعلام کرده اند که یک جت جنگی پاکستان را هدف قرار داده اند!
[Taliban claim to have targeted Pakistani fighter jet!]”
Pakistan, Afghanistan clashes
On the night of 11 October 2025, the forces of Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government launched (archive) an attack on Pakistan’s military posts along the border.
After the clashes, the Pakistan Army’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said over “200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists have been neutralised while the number of injured is much higher”. It also confirmed losing 23 soldiers, saying 29 others were wounded.
The ISPR added that the defence was a response to “an unprovoked attack on Pakistan” by “Afghan Taliban and Indian-sponsored Fitna-al-Khawarij”, a term the government uses to refer to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban.
Noting that the attacks came during the visit of Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to India, which is “the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the region”, the statement urged the “Taliban government to take immediate and verifiable actions to neutralize the terrorist groups, inter alia, FAK [Fitna-al-Khawarij], FAH [Fitna-al-Hindustan] and ISKP/ Daesh operating from their territory”.
“Fitna-al-Hindustan” is a term the government uses to refer to the “terrorist organisations in Balochistan”, according to Dawn.
Interestingly, Muttaqi also referred to Pakistan-administered Kashmir as part of India in a recent joint statement issued by Kabul and New Delhi — a move that caused concern according to the Foreign Office.
On the other hand, Afghanistan claimed to have killed “58 Pakistani soldiers in overnight border operations” and wounded at least 30. Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid admitted that nine of their “fighters had died and between 16 and 18 people had been injured”.
In this regard, US President Donald Trump said, “I hear there’s a war now going on between Pakistan and Afghanistan. […] I’m good at solving wars, I’m good at making peace.”
Islamabad has long alleged that Afghanistan harbours armed groups and facilitates the TTP’s attacks inside Pakistan, accusations that Kabul has denied.
The 11 October clashes came shortly after Afghanistan accused (archive) Pakistan “of launching airstrikes on its capital Kabul”, with its defence ministry saying Islamabad “violated the air space” and bombed a “civilian market” near the border.
At that time, Pakistan’s FO did not directly acknowledge the alleged attack but said the country’s counterterrorism moves were “legitimate self-defence against militants operating from Afghan soil”.
However, Reuters quoted a Pakistani security official as saying TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud’s vehicle was targeted in the Kabul airstrike but Taliban spokesperson Mujahid denied the claim in an interview with Anadolu Agency.
According to Dawn, Pakistan Army spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said, “Afghanistan is being used as a base of operations for carrying out terrorism in Pakistan. There is also evidence of this.” He, however, did not confirm or deny airstrikes in Kabul were carried out by the military.
Al Jazeera reported that Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said “enough is enough” and issued a warning to Afghanistan “of consequences for continued assaults on Pakistani forces”. The continuous fighting “prompted calls for restraint from Iran, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia”, it added.
In the wee hours of 15 October, however, “new clashes erupted” between Pakistan and Afghanistan “at the joint border, with both sides accusing the other of having begun the hostilities”, marking the second reported instance of clashes this month.
The ISPR said Afghan Taliban attacked “four locations in Spin Boldak area of Balochistan” and “destroyed Pak-Afghan Friendship Gate on their side”, alongside a similar one at “Pakistani border posts in Kurram Sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa”. In total, 40-50 “Afghan Taliban and Fitna-al-Khawarij fighters” were killed or “suspected to have been killed” and “many injured”, it added.
Mujahid alleged that Pakistan launched the Spin Boldak attack, with 12 civilians killed and over 100 injured. “Multiple” Pakistani soldiers were killed, he asserted.
Ceasefire between Pakistan, Afghanistan
Later in the day, 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 have agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire effective as of 6 pm on 15 October, according to the latest reports.
Fact or Fiction?
Reverse-searching keyframes from the viral video led us to this Facebook reel posted on 10 September 2025, accompanied by the following caption:
“سرگودھا: 104 چک کے قریب پاک فضائیہ کا میراج طیارہ گر کر تباہ۔ طیارہ گرنے کی اطلاع پر ریسکیو اور پاک فضائیہ کی ٹیمیں موقع کی طرف روانہ الحمدللہ طیارہ کا پائلٹ حادثہ میں محفوظ رہا۔
[Sargodha: A Pakistan Air Force [Dassault] Mirage aircraft crashed near Chak 104. Rescue and Pakistan Air Force teams rushed to the scene after receiving information about the plane crash. Alhamdulillah, the pilot of the plane survived the accident.]”
Using relevant keywords, we were able to trace reports about the crash containing images that appear to be from the same site as the video in question.
According to a 9 September report by Daily Ausaf, the jet “crashed during a routine training flight”. It identified the plane as a Mirage 5 ROSE III, which was a “part of No. 27 ‘Zarrar’ Squadron of the 32nd Tactical Attack Wing”.
Military aviation website Fighter Jets World, as well as the Aviation Safety Network (ASN), an accident and incident database by the Flight Safety Foundation, also listed the crash on their platforms.
During our search, we also came across an X (formerly Twitter) post and a YouTube short containing the same video, which shows the TikTok handle @zabiprince114 on the side. Using that, we were able to trace the clip to this post (archive), where it was shared on 9 September 2025. A shot of the same crash from a different angle is also available (archive) on the same account, shared on 10 September.
Videos, apparently of the same crash site, from other angles were posted on TikTok here, here, and here on 9 September 2025 (archived here, here, and here, respectively).
Moreover, we did not find any reliable news reports from reputable media outlets about the Afghan Taliban shooting down a PAF jet.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that since the video predates the October 2025 clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the claim is false.
Virality
The video by ‘Mma Afg’ has been viewed over 1.5 million times so far.
Soch Fact Check found that the clip was also shared here and here.
Conclusion: The claim is false. The video predates the October 2025 clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are no reliable reports of Afghan Taliban shooting down a PAF jet either.
Background image in cover photo: Rashid Khan
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