Claim: A picture shows rescue authorities, and others, in the aftermath of a blast on 30 January 2023 in the Police Lines neighbourhood of Peshawar, Pakistan. Yellow police tape is visible in the background of the scene of the bombing that left more than 30 dead.
Fact: The image is, in fact, from another bombing last year when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque in Peshawar in March 2022.
On 30 January 2023, a powerful blast ripped through a mosque in the Police Lines neighbourhood of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing at least 44 worshippers and leaving more than 150 wounded.
BREAKING: There has been a explosion near the Police Lines Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Initial reports suggest the mosque inside the police lines: Police/ Rescue 1122 pic.twitter.com/sauQGyaI8D
— The Khorasan Diary (@khorasandiary) January 30, 2023
Shortly afterwards, Twitter account @sunotvhd posted an image allegedly depicting the aftermath of the bombing.
The visual, which shows people and rescue officials scrambling with yellow police tape in the background, is marked “اہم ترین,” or “Most Important,” and has the following text in it:
“پشاور پولیس لائنز کی مسجد میں دھماکا، 17 افراد شہید
[Blast in Peshawar Police Lines mosque, 17 people martyred]”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched the image and found that it was actually taken last year.
The image actually shows scenes from the site of a bomb explosion in Peshawar that occurred on 4 March 2022 and killed more than 30 worshippers.
It was taken by The Associated Press photographer Muhammad Sajjad and is available here.
Numerous news outlets, such as Al Jazeera and USA Today, had reported on it.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the image here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: An image from a 2022 bombing at a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, has wrongly been used to portray the January 2023 blast at a mosque in Peshawar.
Background image in cover photo: Jeff Kingma