Old photos of toppled phone towers falsely linked to protests in Pakistan-held Kashmir

A spokesman for Pakistan’s Kashmir government said there were no reports of cell towers destroyed during protests that rocked the region in May 2024, contrary to Facebook and X posts that purported to show photos of the damaged structures. The images — taken before the protests — show phone towers attacked in 2022 and 2023.

“Kashmiris are tearing down mobile phone towers now,” read a post on social media platform X that shared the photos on May 12, 2024.

“Kashmiris say that when we can’t get internet service in this difficult time, we don’t even need these poles of yours.”

The photos show a collapsed phone tower and a charred structure with a hole in the roof.

Four people were killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir — a semi-autonomous region with its own regional government — after paramilitary troops clashed with protesters rallying against rising living costs.

The internet was largely shut down during the demonstrations, which ended on May 14 after organisers accepted a government offer for financial aid.

The Himalayan region is divided between India and Pakistan, which both claim it in full.

The photos were widely shared on X here, here and here and Facebook here, here and here in posts linking them to the protests.

However, Abdul Majid Khan, finance minister and spokesman for Pakistan’s Kashmir government, told AFP on May 24 there were no reports of cell towers destroyed during demonstrations in the region that month.

In reality, the photos show the aftermath of insurgent attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Balochistan insurgency

A reverse image search on Google found the photo of a collapsed phone tower in an article by Pakistan’s Daily Quetta Voice newspaper from June 4, 2022 (archived link).

According to the report, “unknown miscreants” planted an improvised explosive device that blew up the tower in Balochistan’s Bolan district.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but poorest province, is also home to several militant groups fighting for independence or a greater share of the region’s mineral resources (archived link).

The insurgents regularly target infrastructure such as railway tracks, powerlines and phone towers.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in false posts (left) and Daily Quetta Voice’s photo (right):

The newspaper credited the photo to Yousaf Marri, who confirmed to AFP that he…