Fake posts about Pakistan Army Centre’s “attack” abuse irrelevant fire clips
After a surge in separatist attacks in southwestern Pakistan in March, rumors have been rumored that the headquarters of Pakistan’s army was also bombed. However, there are no official reports of such incidents, and false posts include videos of news reports about the explosion of a fuel-refueling motorboat in Syria.
“In Pakistan, a powerful bomb was detonated at the Pakistan Army Headquarters. The explosion killed 20 Pakistani soldiers,” a Facebook post from a March 24, 2025 user from Pakistan’s neighboring India.
It includes a group of people who escaped from the burning structure.
“The attack was carried out by the Bal Road Chistan Army,” the post’s Hindi language title was apparently a reference to the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which claimed responsibility for the deadly train siege in March and the bombing of the bus convoy (here and here).
The BLA is one of the separatist groups that accuses outsiders of plundering natural resources in the volatile baluchistan province near the border with Afghanistan and Iran (archive).
Screenshot of fake posts, taken on March 26, 2025
Similar posts on Facebook and X have also surfaced, claiming that the Pakistan Army’s headquarters in Rawalpindi, Punjab Province were bombed, but no official reports indicate an attack as of April 3.
Reverse image search for keyframes of circulating videos found it in the report on Sky News Arabia on March 18, 2025 (link to archive).
The report said it showed a fuel warehouse explosion in Duma near the Syrian capital Damascus.
Further keyword searches found that the video was included in other reports about the fire (here, here and here archive).
Comparison of screenshots of fake posts (L) and Sky News videos
Syrian human rights observers reported that the incident said two civilians were injured in the tanker explosion (Archive link).
AFP reporter reviewed the videotape and found Arabic in signs visible in the clip display text. However, Pakistan’s logo is mainly written in the official language Urdu (Archive link).
Screenshot of the video with Arabic tag highlighted by AFP
AFP has fact-checked other misinformation related to Pakistan’s separatist attacks.
