After Pakistan and Afghanistan began talks, first in Doha and then in Istanbul, a graphic allegedly of Geo News appeared online claiming that Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif threatened Afghanistan to hand over its Bagram airbase to the United States, otherwise Pakistan will declare a war against it.
The claim is false.
On October 27, a news graphic surfaced online, allegedly appearing to show a Geo News report quoting the defense minister as saying: “If Afghanistan does not hand over Bagram airbase to the United States, then there will be a full war with us.”
The graphic carried Geo News’ logo and a picture of Minister Khawaja Asif. The purported news graphic has been viewed more than 11,000 times on X (formerly known as Twitter), to date.
Neither did the defense minister make any such statement and neither has Geo News broadcast any such news.
Geo Fact Check reviewed Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif’s official X account and interviews from October 18 – 27 and found no such remarks. Asif’s X account can be viewed here.
The minister’s spokesperson also denied to Geo Fact Check that Khawaja Asif issued any such threats.
Separately, it is being claimed online that the defence minister’s statement was aired by Geo News. But Geo News’ spokesperson said that the online graphic was “fake” and that the broadcaster did not air or publish any such news.
It must be mentioned that the online graphic also carries an incorrect logo of the news broadcaster as can be seen below.
Also, no local broadcaster or news outlet has reported any such comments by the minister regarding the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.
Verdict: The graphic is self-generated and neither has the minister made such a statement and neither has it been aired by Geo News.
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