On Wednesday, Afghan media posts and users of the social media platform X shared a video purportedly showing a Pakistani tank captured by the Afghan Taliban. However, the tank in the clip is not Pakistani.
On Sunday, fierce border clashes between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban resulted in the martyrdom of 23 soldiers and left more than 200 Taliban fighters dead, including several Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan terrorists. Both nations claimed to have destroyed border posts on the other side.
On Tuesday, clashes broke out again between neighbors in Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The next day, the third major skirmish also took place: Pakistani security forces said an Afghan Taliban attack was repulsed in Spin Boldak, killing between 15 and 20 Taliban fighters.
Meanwhile, Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a social media post that Afghan forces were “forced to retaliate” after attacks by Pakistani forces in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province. Mujahid claimed that more than 12 civilians were killed and more than 100 injured in the attacks carried out by Pakistani forces using “light and heavy weapons.”
Today, Indian journalist Sidhant Sibal, assistant foreign affairs editor of an Indian media outlet WIONshared an X video of a tank being driven.
The title of the post read: “The Islamic Emirate government releases videos of Afghan forces capturing Pakistani weapons and tanks. Pakistan launched an attack on Afghanistan’s border areas in the past 24 hours, the Afghan side said.”
The post got 15,100 views, but was deleted after a few hours.
Mujahid also shared the same video with a similar claim, with the following title: “In retaliation operations, several Pakistani aggressor soldiers were killed, their posts and centers were captured, weapons and tanks fell into the hands of Afghan forces, and most of their military installations were destroyed. However, the mujahideen, in high spirits, are ready to defend their homeland, their shrines and their town”.
The publication obtained 247,800 views.
The video and claim were also shared by the Afghan state television channel. Pashto RTA with the legend: “In Spin Boldak, the enemy’s captured tank!”
He also shared an image of the same tank in the video.
“Be victorious,” read the title of the post, which garnered 12,000 views. The same video and claim were also shared by the outlet’s English account on X.
Afghan digital media Zawia News also shared the same video with the caption: “Taliban claim that in the morning battle in Spin Boldak, in addition to causing casualties on the Pakistani side, they have also captured posts, weapons and a tank. Due to the firing from the Pakistani side, civilians and traders have also suffered casualties as well as financial losses.”
The publication obtained 7,000 views.
The video with a similar claim was further shared by an Indian propaganda account on
The video obtained 77,000 views.
The video was widely shared by different Afghan and Indian users on X, as can be seen here, here, here, here and here, together obtaining more than 85,000 views.
A fact check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and high public interest in the matter.
Some users in the comments of the posts were noted to have questioned the claims and said that the video showed an Afghan T-62 tank.
According to Tank Encyclopedia, a voluntary online database of armored vehicles, the T-62 is a Soviet main battle tank introduced in 1961 as a successor to the T-55. It features a distinctive 115-millimeter smoothbore gun and a low-profile turret, recognizable by the smoke extractor located in the center of the gun.
It was also used by the Soviet Army in Afghanistan and later by Afghan forces.
Comparison of the tank seen in the video with the reference images of the T-62 on the website shows that both feature a similar space between the fourth and fifth wheels.
The location of the fume extractor in the middle of the barrel can also be seen in both images, distinguishing it from similar tanks such as the T-55, which features the extractor closer to the muzzle.
A keyword search to confirm whether or not the T-62 tank was used by the Afghan Taliban showed that, according to The International Institute for Strategic StudiesThe Afghan Taliban owns several T-62 tanks, which they inherited from the Soviet era and the former Afghan National Army. Many of them were left behind after decades of conflict and later renovated for limited operational use or display.
A June 23, 2021 article on the Dutch open-source intelligence defense analysis website Oryx titled: “Disaster in question: Documenting losses of Afghan military equipment from June 2021 to August 14, 2021,” also reported that the Taliban captured five T-62 tanks from the former Afghan forces.
An article from February 10, 2025 by MilitarnyiA Ukrainian media website focused on military and defense issues, titled: “Afghanistan begins restoring M114 howitzers,” also reported that the Afghan Taliban had restored T-62 tanks.
A search for images of the Afghan Taliban using the tank turned up a post
The publication shared images of Afghan Taliban members riding the tank.
In addition, an Indonesian media outlet also found a YouTube video from October 13, 2025. Tribun Jateng which showed the Afghan Taliban transporting their T-62 amid the current tension with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, neither a keyword search turned up any mainstream media reports of Pakistan having or using T-62 tanks nor did an image search lead to any photographs of the tank being used by the Pakistani military.
Contacted for comment, sunrise.com News editor Ali Osman not only confirmed that the tank in the viral video was a T-62 tank, but also said that it was never inducted into the Pakistani army.
Therefore, fact-checking determined that the claim that a viral video shows a Pakistani tank captured by the Afghan Taliban amid their recent conflict is FAKE. The tank shown is the T-62, which does not belong to Pakistan and is still used by Afghanistan.
This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan, a project of CEJ-IBA and UNDP.
