A 2019 video of a train fire accident in Pakistan is falsely shared as a Pakistani train set on fire by people of Jammu amid India-Pakistan tensions
Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan following the deadly Pahalgam terror attack that took 26 lives on 22 April 2025, a video is going viral on social media (here, here, and here) with the claims that it shows a Pakistani train set on fire by people in Jammu. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: The video shows a Pakistani train set on fire by the people of Jammu.
Fact: The viral video dates back to 31 October 2019 and shows a fire on the Tezgam Express train in Pakistan’s Punjab province, caused by a gas stove explosion. The train, which runs between Karachi and Rawalpindi, caught fire while crossing through Punjab, Pakistan. It is not related to Jammu or hasn’t taken place in the aftermath of the recent Pahalgam terror attack. Additionally, no credible reports confirm that a Pakistani train was set on fire by the people of Jammu. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
We conducted an internet search using relevant keywords to verify the viral claim. However, we found no credible reports confirming that a Pakistani train was set on fire by the people of Jammu. Given the significance of such an incident, it would have attracted substantial media coverage, but no such reports were found.
We then performed a reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video that led to multiple media reports featuring the same visuals (here, here, here, and here). According to these reports, on 31 October 2019, there was a massive fire caused by a cooking gas stove explosion on a train travelling in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province. At least 70 people died and dozens were injured after the fire broke out on a passenger train. The then Pakistan Railways Minister Rashid Ahmed stated that most of the deaths occurred when passengers threw themselves from the moving train to escape the fire.
The incident was caused by the explosion of a gas canister while passengers were cooking breakfast on a stove on the train. The incident took place on a train known as the Tezgam Express, which travels between the cities of Karachi and Rawalpindi, as it was crossing through Punjab province.
As of May 2025, no active train services are operating across the India-Pakistan border (here, here, here, and here). The Samjhauta Express, a bi-weekly train service between Lahore and Attari, and the Thar Express, which operated between Karachi and Munabao in Rajasthan, were both suspended in 2019 following India’s revocation of Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. This further dismisses the viral claim that a Pakistani train was set on fire by the people of Jammu.
To sum up, a 2019 video of a train fire accident in Pakistan is falsely shared as a Pakistani train set on fire by people of Jammu amid India-Pakistan tensions.