Claim: A video shows Pakistani soldiers departing for Saudi Arabia after the two countries recently signed a mutual defence agreement.
Fact: The claim is false; the video in question shows Pakistani soldiers who are part of UN peacekeeping forces.
Following the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on 17 September, X user @WaheedN15 shared a video of Pakistani soldiers at an airport, writing, “ارضِ مقدس کی حفاظت کے لیے روانگی شروع ہو گئی۔
🇸🇦❤️🇵🇰”
[Translation: The departure for the protection of the Holy Land has begun.]
The use of Saudi Arabia’s flag in the caption and reference to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina implies that the video shows Pakistani soldiers being sent to Saudi Arabia.
Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement
On 17 September, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) in Riyadh. The pact strengthens a decades-long security partnership amid heightened regional tensions, reported The Guardian. “The agreement states that any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both,” a statement from the Pakistani prime minister’s office said as reported by Reuters.
The agreement between the two nations came just two days after a joint session of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was convened in response to Israel’s attack on Doha on 9 September.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first searched for news reports to check whether Pakistan had sent soldiers to Saudi Arabia following the deal. However, we did not find any relevant reports from credible news outlets.
We then reverse-searched keyframes from the viral video to trace its origin and understand its context. While we could not locate the exact video referenced in the claim, we found other videos showing Pakistani soldiers wearing the same attire as in the viral clip. According to the captions of these videos, the soldiers were deployed as part of UN peacekeeping missions.
UN peacekeeping forces or personnel protect civilians and UN staff, monitor disputed borders, observe peace processes in post-conflict areas, provide security across conflict zones, assist during elections, support in-country military personnel with training, and help ex-combatants implement peace agreements. The forces do not intervene in conflicts between nations or fight on behalf of any side.
Pakistan currently deploys more than 2,800 military and police personnel to missions in Abyei, the Central African Republic, Congo, Cyprus, Somalia, South Sudan, and Western Sahara. It is the fifth-largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping operations.
While Soch Fact Check could not independently verify the origin or the context of the viral video, it confirms that the video depicts Pakistani soldiers serving in UN Peacekeeping Forces.
Virality
The video was shared here, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook. Archived here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On X, it was shared here (archive).
Conclusion: The viral video does not show Pakistani soldiers departing for Saudi Arabia. It instead shows Pakistani soldiers who are part of UN peacekeeping forces.
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Background image in cover photo: UN Photo/Catianne Tijerina
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