Image of child’s burnt beheaded body in Kurram’s Bagan town amid tribal violence

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has investigated this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team conducted a reverse image search to trace the original source of the viral image.

Multiple social media posts since November 24, 2024, circulated an image of a dead baby’s corpse being held by a man, alleging that the infant was killed, beheaded and burnt in Kurram district’s Bagan town. However, the viral image is old from Afghanistan in 2016.

On November 21, at least 38 people were killed in a gun attack carried out on passenger vans in the Ochat area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower Kurram region. In a retaliatory attack the following night, armed groups from the district headquarters Parachinar stormed Bagan Bazaar and surrounding villages in Lower Kurram, leaving 21 dead.

HOW IT STARTED

On Nov 24, the iVerify Pakistan team was alerted by the public seeking authentication of a claim about the image of a dead baby burnt in Bagan town of Kurram district.

The team was pointed to a Nov 24 X post showing an image of an old man holding a dead child with the following caption: “Speak for me too, why has your tongue fallen silent? In Bagan, the blood-curdling scenes of the bloodbath orchestrated by the Iranian-backed, armed, and trained Zainabiyoun terrorists are emerging. This innocent child was killed, beheaded and then set on fire, just the thought of it sends shivers down the spine. Yet, there is an atmosphere of silence and apathy everywhere. Speak up, raise your voice, and expose this barbarity without any ifs or buts.”

The post gained 170,000 views and was reshared 1,800 times. It has since been deleted

The same image was also shared on X on Nov 24 by a Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl supporter with a caption: “In Bagan, the bloodshed caused by the armed and trained Zainabiyoun terrorists, backed by Iran, has brought forth heart-wrenching scenes. An innocent child was killed, beheaded, and then set on fire, just the thought of it sends shivers down the spine.”

The post gained over 5,200 views.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality, keen public interest in the matter amid tribal tensions in Kurram district and to satisfy the public’s request seeking authentication for the claim.

A reverse image search for the picture showed that it was used in a Yahoo News report from November 4, 2016, titled: “Dozens of Afghan civilians, 2 American soldiers killed in apparent US airstrikes”.

According to the report, a joint US-Afghan raid involving Nato airstrikes, resulted in the deaths of at least 30 civilians, three Afghan troops, and two US service members, according to Western and local officials. The operation, part of a “train, advise, and assist mission”, also left four US troops wounded.

The report said the airstrike sparked outrage in Kunduz city, where “grieving relatives paraded mutilated bodies of children in open trucks during protests”.

A further search showed that the image was also used in an April 24, 2019, article by US media outlet Voice of America titled: “UN: Pro-government forces kill more Afghans than insurgents”.

The article showed that the image was from US wire news agency The Associated Press with the following caption: “An Afghan man holds up the body of a child that was killed during clashes between Taliban and US-backed Afghan security forces in Kunduz province, in northern Afghanistan, Nov 3, 2016.”

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that an image shows the burnt body of a child from Kurram district’s Bagan town amid tribal violence is false.

The visual circulating online is actually of an Afghan man protesting while holding the corpse of a child killed in clashes between the Afghan Taliban and former Afghan security forces in Kunduz province in November 2016.

Evidence and References

November 4, 2016, Yahoo News report:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/dozens-of-afghan-civilians-2-american-soldiers-205450680.html

April 24, 2019, Voice of America report:
https://www.voanews.com/a/un-pro-government-forces-kill-more-afghans-than-insurgents/4889038.html