A suicide bombing struck the Bajaur district of Pakistan on July 30, claiming at least 54 lives, including 23 children, and wounding nearly 200 people. The distressing incident unfolded amidst a political gathering hosted by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F). The Islamic State group (ISIL) on Monday claimed responsibility for the suicide blast.
Against this backdrop, a video purportedly showing the blast site circulated across social media, claiming it is the footage of the aftermath of explosion site.
A Facebook user shared this post with a caption: 44 killed in suicide blast at political party meet in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The explosion took place at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) workers’ convention in Bajaur’s Khar. #Pakistan #Blast
The post can be seen here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be FALSE.
Performing a Reverse Image Search of the keyframes of the video, the NewsMobile team found a report on news.hsw.cn dated July 29, 2023, carrying the stills from the same video a day before the blast in Pakistan.
According to the report, the incident was from Hongqi Street, Anping County of Hengshui, China. The footage shows that the incident involved a natural gas pipeline rupture at a construction site. Two people died, and two others were seriously injured in this explosion.
The Chinese news agency Xinhua reports that the explosion was caused by a gas pipeline rupture during its renovation. Five people were taken into custody by the public security authorities.
The above information establishes that the video in question is from Hengshui in China. It has no connection with the recent suicide blast in Pakistan.
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