Photo shows victims of 2011 Pakistan bombing, not train siege

After the bodies of people killed in a train siege by separatist gunmen in southwestern Pakistan were recovered from the site in March 2025, a photo was falsely shared in social media posts that claimed it showed the victims' coffins. The photo in fact shows the coffins of Pakistani army soldiers killed during a bombing in February 2011.

"Thank you, Baloch brothers," reads part of the Hindi-language caption to a photo showing coffins draped with Pakistan flags shared on X on March 14, 2025.

It circulated after authorities retrieved the bodies of dozens of people killed in a train siege by separatist gunmen in southwest Pakistan's impoverished but mineral rich province of Balochistan (archived link).

The attack on the train, which was carrying around 450 passengers, was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) -- one of a number of separatist groups that accuse outsiders of plundering the province.

"We were not taught to celebrate someone's death, but Pakistanis celebrated the death of 40 soldiers in the Pulwama terrorist attack, now it is our time," the caption adds, referring to the site of a February 2019 suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir (archived link).

Relations between the two nuclear-armed South Asian countries nose-dived after the attack, which was claimed by Pakistan-based militants.

The same photo was also shared in similar posts on X and Facebook.

The circulating image, however, is old.

A keyword search led to the same photo in AFP's archives, where its caption says it was released by the army's communication service on February 10, 2011.

It says it shows officials "offering prayers during the funeral service for the army soldiers who were killed in an attack by a teenage suicide bomber on Pakistani army recruits during a parade in Mardan, around 30 kms (20 miles) from the regional capital Peshawar on February 10, 2011".

A reverse image search on Google also led to the photo published in a report about the attack by the British newspaper The Independent (archived link).

AFP has fact-checked more misrepresented visuals linked to the Pakistan train hijacking.