A video of a huge explosion is widely shared on social media. Many social media users claim that it is the recent explosion at a Pakistan power plant.
The video is shared on Facebook with a caption: “Guddu power plant blast, loss of 15 billion Pakistani rupees”
Here’s the link to the above post.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be MISLEADING.
Using the InVid Tool, we extracted keyframes from the viral video and performed a Reverse Image Search. This search directed us to a YouTube channel that carried the same viral video on February 13, 2021, with the caption: “Dozens of gas and oil barrels caught fire in Herat Islam Qala port.”
More searches led us to a few media accounts from Russia and Turkey that included pictures of the explosion seen in the viral video.
According to a report, dated February 14, 2021, the blast took place in Afghanistan after some fuel tanks caught fire.
According to another Turkish media report, 18 trucks with Turkish licence plates were destroyed in the explosion. The incident happened in Afghanistan’s “Islamic Kale” (Islam Qala) district, not far from the Iranian border. The same was reported by Associated Press and CNN.
The same video was also tweeted by an Afghanistan journalist on February 13, 2021, with the caption: “#AFG fuel tankers exploding. Investors lose their money in a matter of seconds. Financial tragedy on the Afghan-Iran border. No one knows what started the fire. No reports of casualties or fatalities at this stage. Video shared with me.”
#AFG fuel tankers exploding. Investors losing their money in a matter of seconds. Financial tragedy on the Afghan – Iran border. No one knows what started the fire. No reports of casualties or fatalities at this stage. Video shared with me. pic.twitter.com/hb127UqSv5
— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) February 13, 2021
We then looked if any such incident recently happened in Pakistan. We found that the fire at the Guddu power plant, situated in Sindh province of Pakistan, took place on July 13, 2022. This incident had been reported by many media outlets. The power plant blast has cost the national exchequer 15 billion Pakistani rupees.
Thus, it is evident from the above information that an old video from Afghanistan is falsely shared as a recent Pakistan power plant fire.
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