Claim of 1,000 killed in Pakistan’s Muridke not supported by evidence

A claim circulating online alleging that more than 1,000 people were killed in a security operation in Muridke in Pakistan’s Punjab province, has not been supported by verifiable evidence.

The report, published by the independent outlet Drop Site News and later shared widely on social media, prompted Nukta to examine the claims. The verification found no substantiated proof that such an incident took place.

The claim followed an operation launched on October 13, when security officials in Punjab moved to disperse a protest march by the radical religious party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) en route to Islamabad.

Soon after, Drop Site News published an article alleging that the crackdown had resulted in a “massacre” in Muridke. The piece, authored by U.S.-based journalist Ryan Grim, relied on anonymous accounts and an unverified video compilation as its primary evidence.

The TLP itself has claimed that around 280 of its supporters were killed, a figure that has not been independently verified and remains far lower than Drop Site News’ claim of 1,000 casualties.

Muridke, a town roughly 28 kilometers north of Lahore with a population of about 721,000, has shown no signs of any large-scale violence. Local media outlets, hospitals and rescue agencies have reported no spike in casualties and satellite imagery shows no disruption or mass activity consistent with the claim.

A video shared by Drop Site News was found to be a collection of unrelated clips without timestamps, geotags or identifiable sources.

A frame-by-frame review by Nukta found that several visuals in the video predate October 13 and originate from multiple unidentified locations. Even at face value, the footage depicts fewer than a dozen apparent casualties - far from the reported figure of over a thousand.

Nukta reviews multiple videos as part of its fact-checking process.Nukta

Local journalists contacted by Nukta also said that a large-scale tragedy in Muridke would have been impossible to conceal. The town lacks major hospitals, meaning any significant number of injuries or deaths would have caused noticeable emergency traffic to nearby cities. No such movement or funeral activity has been observed.

In a follow-up article, Drop Site News revised its claim from “over 1,000” deaths to “over 600,” citing unnamed sources but again providing no official records, casualty lists, or statements from human rights organizations.

The report’s language, including phrases such as “diabolical deployments of strategic violence,” also blurred the line between reporting and commentary.

At present, there is no independently verified evidence - visual, official, or testimonial - to substantiate the claim of a mass killing in Muridke. Both local and international monitoring indicate that no such incident has been documented.