Old Photo Claiming to show aftermath of Peshawar Mosque Blast 

Authors

Vaibhav Bhujang

Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.

A bomb blast in a mosque has rocked the northwestern city of Peshawar killing at least 61 and injuring another 196. Reportedly an assailant shot two policemen before entering a Shia mosque to detonated the bomb killIng dozens and injured many in a premeditated attack on 4th March, 2022. Social media has since been a hotbed of unsubstantiated claims and speculation as the situation in Pakistan is tense. In light of these events an image of a man carrying a child seemingly running away from the blast site has been shared claiming to show the aftermath of the bomb blast in Peshawar. The caption reads ‘Heart Bleeds for the Martyrs of #Peshawarblast. May Allah give patience to their families to bear this irreparable loss..’ Newschecker found this image to be old and unconnected to the Peshawar mosque blast.

The image has been shared by  Twitter User @HamzahHumayun who has 25,500 followers on the platform. The social media post has garnered 577 likes and 82 retweets on Twitter. 

Newschecker found similar claims on Twitter with different captions.

A post from ISIS affiliated news agency called Amaq reported that ISIS had taken responsibility for the attack carried out on a Shia mosque during Friday prayers. Several terror affiliated groups have been in conflict with the Shia population who make between 15% and 20% of the population of Pakistan, the biggest number outside Iran. Shia muslims have been a target in Pakistan as proxy wars are fought on the land between Shia dominated Iran and Sunni dominated Saudi Arabia. As the current administration in Pakistan threw its weight behind the Sunni extremist groups, the Shia population of Pakistan has been vulnerable to a string of attacks carried against them.

Factcheck/ Verification

We conducted a reverse image search on Google to ascertain the authenticity  of the viral image and found an article from NBC News uploaded on September 29, 2013 which contained the same image in its social media post. 

According to the article, the image was taken on September 29, 2013 after a car bomb blast that took place in a busy market in Peshawar killing 33 people and injuring another 75. This was reported to be the third blast during that week in Peshawar.

Upon performing a keyword search, Newschecker found the same image carried by the Associated Press Images website uploaded on September 29, 2013. The Overview of the image reads ‘A Pakistani man carrying a child rushes away from the site of a blast shortly after a car exploded in Peshawar, Pakistan, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013. A car bomb exploded on a crowded street in northwestern Pakistan Sunday, killing scores of people in the third blast to hit the troubled city of Peshawar in a week, officials said. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad).’

Conclusion

While it is true that the image in the viral social media post is from a bomb blast that happened in Peshawar, Newschecker’s investigation has found the image is from 2013 and not connected to the recent bomb blast that in a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan. 

Result: False Context/ False

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Authors

Vaibhav Bhujang

Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.