Claim: A video shows scenes after Pakistan conducted airstrikes in Spin Boldak during last month’s clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Fact: This video is old and likely depicts scenes from a mass funeral following an earthquake in Afghanistan in October 2023.
On 21 October, a Facebook user posted a video (archive) that apparently showed the aftermath of Pakistani airstrikes in Spin Boldak. The description of the post reads: “Scenes from PAF airstrike on speen boldak three days ago.”
The caption is likely linking the incident to the recent clashes on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border near the Spin Boldak region, following the deadly clashes between the two countries that began on 11 October.
This article fact-checks only the video being shared with the claim.
Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict
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 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 then retaliated against these attacks.
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. On the other hand, 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 had been 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 video and found that it is not related to the recent conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A Facebook user posted the same video in October 2024 with the caption that states [translated into English via Google Translate]: “Look at the oppression of the corrupt Iranian government…”
A comparison of this video with the one shared in the claim is shown below:
On the left is the clip being fact-checked, which matches the video on the right, shared on Facebook in October 2024.
Moreover, a TikTok logo appears on the left in this video with the user ID “@user3941158517160”, indicating that the video was uploaded by this account. Soch Fact Check then found that this user uploaded the same video (archive) in September 2024, a month before the Facebook version. Only the text “earthquake” appears overlaid at the top of the clip.
Taking cues from this, further reverse searches yielded several reports that included a picture of the same scene as the one seen in the video being fact-checked. Both the video and these images show a mass funeral. The images, which were published two years before the claim, are linked to an earthquake in Afghanistan. Jamaica Observer, a Jamaican newspaper, published such an image in its report “Mass funeral held for Afghan quake victims, families still missing” on 9 October 2023. The screenshot below shows the photo carried by the publication:
Screenshot of the Jamaica Observer carrying the photo depicting a mass funeral in Afghanistan in October 2023.
The description of the photo above credits this image to “Mohsen KARIMI / AFP”. Based on this information, keyword searches led to the original photo of the mass funeral by Karimi on the Getty Images website (archive). The description here states the following:
“EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / TOPSHOT – Afghan mourners prepare to offer mass funeral prayers for the people killed in a series of earthquakes in Zendeh Jan district of Herat province on October 9, 2023. Afghan villagers and volunteers on October 9 helped dig for survivors of a series of earthquakes that killed more than 2,000 people, as aid began trickling into the devastated region. (Photo by Mohsen KARIMI / AFP) (Photo by MOHSEN KARIMI/AFP via Getty Images)”.
Similar images of the same incident taken by Mohsen Karimi can be found here and here.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, confirms that the video circulating online is not linked to the recent clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Virality
The Facebook video received 4,400 reactions and was reshared 314 times.
An X user shared the video here, garnering 133,000 views and 1,200 likes.
Conclusion: The video is not linked to the clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan in October 2025. It likely originated in Afghanistan when a massive earthquake hit the Herat province in October 2023 .
Background image in cover photo: Anadolu Agency
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com