Viral video showing CCTV footage of blast at Islamabad district court is fake

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

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted a forensic analysis to assess the authenticity of the video.

Multiple people shared a video on social media platform X on November 11, 2025, claiming to show the CCTV footage of a blast at the district and sessions court in Islamabad. However, the video is AI-generated.

At least twelve people were killed and 36 people were injured on the same date in a suicide blast outside the district and sessions court building in Islamabad’s G-11 area. According to Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, the attacker “stood outside the court for around 12 minutes”.

The incident occurred as international events were being hosted in the capital, including the Inter-Parliamentary Speakers’ Conference and the 6th Margalla Dialogue, while a cricket match between the Greenshirts and Sri Lanka was also being held in Rawalpindi.

HOW IT STARTED

On Nov 11, an X user, who seems to be Indian from previous posts, shared a video alleging that it showed the CCTV footage of the said blast. The clip shows people sitting inside what seems to be a canteen when an explosion rips through.

The caption read: “Breaking: Massive explosion reported at a court in Islamabad … false flag of Asim Munir… Join Telegram [sic] for brutal video of blast. Story developing.”

The post quickly racked up 262,700 views and 1,700 likes.

The same video and claim were also shared by other Indian accounts, as seen here, here and here, gathering over 10,000 views.

The clip was also shared by a Pakistani journalist. The user, whose bio describes him as a court reporter, said in the caption: “Islamabad suicide blast: Footage of the canteen at the court at the time of the blast has surfaced.”

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and keen public interest in the Islamabad blast.

A keyword search yielded a Dawn news report, which stated that the attacker targeted a police van parked outside the court — contrary to what the viral video shows.

The same can also be seen in the actual CCTV footage of the blast as shared by journalists and media outlets.

The search did not produce any reports stating that the blast caused damage to the court canteen.

Analysing the video using the forensic tool Hive Moderation shows that the clip was flagged as likely to contain AI-generated content with an aggregate score of 65.1 per cent deepfake probability.

Similarly, Undetectable AI, another tool, analysed the video to have a 3pc confidence score of authentic content.

Moreover, observing the video showed various visual inconsistencies typical of visuals generated through artificial intelligence. Firstly, the light direction on people or objects in the clip doesn’t stay consistent with the surrounding environment. For instance, shadows flicker unnaturally or appear detached from the source.

Similarly, the explosion sequence starting from the four-second mark lacks realistic physics, including smoke expansion, debris, and lighting response that don’t follow natural decay or frame continuity.

Separately, a reverse image search yielded an X post dated November 4, which shared the same clip. It claimed that the video showed visuals of a gas cylinder explosion at the Supreme Court building in Islamabad, further proving that the said clip is not from today’s blast.

Dawn correspondent Tahir Naseer also confirmed that the canteen of the court was not affected by the blast. He added that no such canteen, as seen in the viral video, was there at the Islamabad court.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that a viral video shows CCTV footage of the suicide blast outside the district and sessions court in Islamabad is false.

The video is AI-generated.