Movie Scene Falsely Shared As Taliban Torturing Panjshir Locals

A scene from a movie on Afghanistan showing armed men pushing a group of people into shipping containers is being shared claiming it is a real incident from Panjshir after the Taliban took over the country.

BOOM found that viral video is a scene from a movie, uploaded on YouTube in 2017, years before the recent violence being reported in Afghanistan.

The Taliban after taking over control of Afghanistan formed a new government, sans any women and filled with hardliners from the group and declaring the country an Islamic Emirate. Panjshir which saw prolonged resistance is now, according to media reports, in Taliban's control. A recent story by The Washington Post quoted tribal elders who had managed to flee Panjshir who said the Taliban, had imposed a blocade in the region and "was denying residents food and carrying out extra judicial killings." Reuters reported that the family of an anti-Taliban leader alleged that he had been executed in Panjshir after the province was taken under their control.

And while reports of human rights abuses stream in from Panjshir, a viral clip circulating online is not real but from a movie. The video is being shared with a claim that it shows Afghans who stay in Panjshir are being caught by the Taliban and thrown into shipping containers and then starved to death. The posts further claim that those caught in the containers are tortured and then killed by the Taliban. The claim reads, "Hundreds of Afghans in Panjshir are being held in containers,beaten up & kept hungry for days with many of them losing their lives.Those being tortured & killed aren't enemies of Islam and in fact are more Islamic than Talibs."

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FACT CHECK

BOOM found replies to tweets sharing the video, that it was a scene from a movie called The Taleban/The Clouds, available for public viewing on YouTube.

The reply posted a screenshot from YouTube showing the name of the movie and we ran a search for the same and found an upload from December 29, 2017 by a channel named, Danish Association.

The scene as shown in the viral video appears at the counter of 47 minutes 10 seconds and goes on till the 48 minute counter.

Watch below:

According to the description on YouTube by Danish Association, the film is called, 'Abhara' and also goes by the name 'Taliban' and is directed and written by Siddiq Abedi. The YouTube upload describes the film plot as, "The story of the film depicts the crimes of the Taliban from Kabul to the borders of Afghanistan in the Amu Darya. Watching this film informs the viewers about the violence, atrocities and crimes of the dark period of the Taliban." It further names some of the other movies by the director, namely, 'Printer', 'Homelessness', 'Rebellion'.

A story in The Washington Post quoted a tribal leader who fled the province saying the Taliban had seized control of Panjshir and had killed several locals. "The militants seized control of Panjshir this week. As sporadic clashes have continued, civilians have seized chances to flee the province amid reports that at least eight residents, including children, had been killed by the Taliban..." reported the Washinton Post and further quoted the same elder saying that the Taliban was, "denying residents food and carrying out some extrajudicial executions of civilians..."