A digitally altered screenshot falsely attributed to Al Jazeera is being circulated on Pakistan-based social media accounts. The image, showing an unconscious child on a sheet, is claimed to depict the aftermath of the October 2023 earthquake in Afghanistan. However, the original Al Jazeera video, uploaded on October 9, 2023, does not include this image. The altered content appears to be part of an effort to mislead viewers and divert attention from Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Paktika province.
Presenting the screenshot as a fact on X (Formerly Twitter) @Raad_Pak wrote, “Fact Check Pro-TTP accounts showing a child’s body, killed after PAF airstrike on TTP camps is misleading. The real picture is from Al Jazeera from 2023 during an earthquake.”
Fact Check
— AM Raad (@Raad_Pak) December 25, 2024
Pro-TTP accounts showing a child's body, killed after PAF airstrike on TTP camps is misleading. Real picture is from Al Jazeera from 2023 during an earthquake. pic.twitter.com/J8kyXiAI53
Several other propagandists have also shared the screenshot and presented it as a fact while countering posts regarding Pakistan’s airstrike in Afghanistan. Their posts can be seen here, @UsmanAbbasi555, @AfPak_monitor, @Defence_PK99
The truth behind the claims behind atrocities in Afghanistan, Fact Check
As soon as the posts containing the screenshots and claims came to our notice. Subsequently, we conducted research and analysis regarding the screenshot. We found that the screenshot of Al Jazeera English was not real but digitally altered.
To verify the claims made by propagandists. We searched and found Al Jazeera English’s same post on X. The original video uploaded by Al Jazeera on October 9, 2023, does not contain the depicted image of the child. This suggests that the altered screenshot was created to mislead viewers divert attention from the airstrikes and hide the atrocities on innocent women and children.
This was the moment a young child was found alive under the rubble after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit western Afghanistan on Saturday ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/l2iEGehhEJ
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 9, 2023
According to reports (1, 2), the Taliban confirmed that Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Paktika province killed 46 people. The majority of whom were women and children.
Therefore, it is evident from D-Intent Data’s Fact Check that the screenshot of Al Jazeera was not real. But digitally altered.
2774
— D-Intent Data (@dintentdata) December 25, 2024
ANALYSIS: Fake
FACT: ISPR-funded social media accounts are circulating a manipulated screenshot of an Al Jazeera post. The image in question shows an unconscious child lying on a sheet,with claims that it was taken during the earthquake in Afghanistan in October 2023.(1/4) pic.twitter.com/YJlYOuqEJD
Intent
Pakistan-based propaganda accounts are circulating digitally altered screenshots of Al Jazeera to set their narrative to defend atrocities on innocent women and children in Afghanistan.
Conclusion
Claim– An old photo of a child victim of the 2023 earthquake was linked to Pakistan’s airstrike in Afghanistan.
Fact– The screenshot of Al Jazeera is not real but digitally altered.
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