A video showing thousands of Afghans stream across the Pakistan border to reach their homeland after the frontiers opened following the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were lifted is being falsely linked to the Taliban takeover.
According to reports several Afghans have recently entered Pakistan through the Spin Boldak/Chaman border crossing located southeast of the country, post the Taliban overthrew the Afghan government on August 15, 2021. This included patients seeking medical attention and freed Afghan Taliban prisoners.
Netizens are linking the Afghan exodus based on the viral video to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) introduced by the Modi-government which will recognise migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to be eligible for citizenship only if they are not Muslims.
The caption with the video in Bengali translates to, "Visuals after Pakistani officials opened Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a few time - open your eyes suicidal Hindus who opposed NRC, CAA and see these people. They will enter into India via Pakistan and then, who will suffer?"
(Original Text in Bengali: কিছুক্ষণের জন্য পাকিস্তানি আধিকারিকরা আফগানিস্তান পাকিস্তান সীমান্ত খুলে দেওয়ার পরের দৃশ্য...দেখুন আত্মঘাতী হিন্দুরা চোখ খুলে দেখুন খুব তো এনআরসি সিএএ এর বিরোধিতা করেছিলেন এবার এই লোক গুলো পাকিস্তান হয়ে ভারতে আসার চেষ্টা করবে তারপর বলিরপাঠা হবে কারা????????)
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BOOM has also received the video on its helpline number for verification with the caption "Afgani's broke open pakistan border and ran inside pakistan."
Also Read: 2019 Video Viral As The Pak Taliban Threatening India And PM Modi
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on one of the keyframes from the viral video and found it on British daily, The Telegraph's YouTube channel uploaded on April 8, 2020. The video is captioned as, "Thousands rush across Pakistan-Afghanistan border after officials lift Covid-19 restrictions".
The description of the video reads, "Thousands of Afghan streamed across the Pakistan border to their homeland on Tuesday overwhelming authorities who had opened the frontier after more than two weeks of restrictions to stop the spread of Covid-19."
It further added, "Video from the Torkham border crossing near the Khyber Pass showed large crowds of Afghans running through, apparently bypassing official attempts to check paperwork and enforce quarantine."
Taking a cue from this, we did a keyword search on Google Maps and found a photo of the Torkham border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The photo showed similar location as shown in the viral video.
We also found an image of the location from stock photo sharing site, Getty Images. Below is a screen-to-screen comparison between the scene from the viral video and Torkham border's photo present on Getty Images' website.
According to The New Indian Express report published on April 6, 2020, Pakistan opened the Torkham and Chaman border crossings for four days allowing stranded Afghan nationals to return to their home after officials lift COVID-19 restrictions.
Other visuals of Afghans rushing towards the Afghan side of Torkham border can be seen here.
BOOM has been debunking viral misinformation and disinformation since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. You can view our fact-check articles in the thread below.
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