A video was doing the rounds on social media platforms on September 24, 2024, of missiles being fired, claiming that it was from recent inter-tribal sectarian violence in Kurram district’s Parachinar. However, the video is from April 2024 when Hezbollah attacked Israel.
Kurram, a sensitive tribal region bordering Afghanistan, has reported several land disputes in the past that led to deadly sectarian clashes. Armed and in some cases, trained fighters were involved in the violence.
The death toll from clashes in September 2024 has reached 46.
On September 24, a user on social media platform X shared a video of missiles launching in the air during nighttime and wrote in the caption, “Look at the missiles held by the Shia of Kurram district’s Parachinar. They are firing these missiles at small Sunni villages (Khar Kali and Sada) of Ahlesunnat. Where did this weapon come to the Shias? Where is our army?”
The user also used hashtags of “Parachinar” and “Kurram”.
The post was viewed 20,000 times and shared 309 times. The video was also widely shared by others with similar claims of Sunni tribes being under attack by Shia tribes as can be seen here, here and here.
The video was shared again on September 26, 2024, on Instagram and gained over 8,800 likes. However, the caption for this post said that it showed anti-Shia organisations and the Afghan Taliban attacking the Shia residents of Parachinar.
A fact-check was carried out to verify the claim regarding the shop due to its high virality and public interest in the issue due to the ongoing nature of the violence in Parachinar breaking out frequently.
Conducting a reverse image search yielded results from April 2024 with posts saying the video showed missile fire by Hezbollah.
A keyword search for “Hezbollah”, “attacks” and “Israel” from April 13-14, 2024 yielded an April 14 video report from US outlet CNN, titled, “Dramatic video shows outgoing Hezbollah rockets from Lebanon toward Israeli military”.
According to an Al Jazeera report dated April 13, 2024, Hezbollah took responsibility for firing “dozens of rockets” at Israeli artillery positions in a retaliatory attack to Israeli military’s strikes in southern Lebanon.
Therefore, the fact check determined that the claim about a video showing missiles launching in the air being of Shia tribes attacking Sunni tribes in Parachinar, or vice versa, is false. The clip is actually from April 2024 when Hezbollah retaliated and attacked artillery positions in Israel.
This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ and UNDP.
