(VIDEO): Is this Video of Pakistan military soldiers creating a floating bridge?
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ISLAMABAD - A video of soldiers creating a floating bridge across a river has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in online posts, alongside multiple references to the Pakistani military including the words "I love Pak army" overlaid on the clip. The footage is being shared in a misleading context; the soldiers in the video are not from Pakistan, they are NATO troops during an exercise in Lithuania.
Multiple online posts contain a video showing soldiers constructing a temporary bridge over a river and military vehicles crossing it as patriotic Pakistani songs play in the background.
There is blue text overlaid on the entire 3 minute 16 second clip which says: "i love pak Army". Pak is a term used to refer to Pakistan, according to the OED link.
For example, this link post published to Facebook by a page called "Pak-Korner" on February 21, 2019, and shared more than 10,000 times since, contains the video which has been viewed 350,000 times.
The Urdu-language caption on the Facebook post says, translated to English:
“A Muslim once again has come out wearing kafan. Truth, there is no other God but Allah. Enemies, what do you think, we are ready for war. Long live Pakistan, long live Pakistan army.” A kafan link is an Islamic burial shroud.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post: Screenshot of misleading Facebook post
Other blue Urdu-language text that appears in the video says, translated to English: "Awesome Hazara Group". Hazara is a region link in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The video has been also shared elsewhere on Facebook with the same caption, for example here link on a page called "Pakistan Special" and here link where it has been viewed more than 1,000 times since being published February 27, 2019.
It has also been shared on YouTube, for example here link.
The video is being shared in a misleading context; it does not show Pakistani soldiers but in fact is a video of NATO drills carried out in Lithuania.
A Google reverse image search using keyframes obtained with the InVID video verification tool led to this link YouTube video published June 20, 2017, by AiirSource Military, a verified channel with 1.7 million subscribers.
The original video, embedded below, has the caption: "Troops Build Pontoon Bridge To Move Tanks Across River During NATO Drills In Lithuania."
NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Pakistan is not a member of NATO.
Here link is a page on the NATO website about the group’s relations with Pakistan.
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