No, The Photo is Not From the Recent Bombing at Kabul Educational Centre

The photo is from 2016, and shows a woman who was severely injured in a suicide bombing attack on 20 January 2016.

A photograph, which shows a woman with scars on her face, is being shared across social media platforms linking it to the suicide bomb attack that ripped through an education centre in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul in September.

The bombing took place in the Dasht-e-Barchi area, which is the home to the minority Hazara community, killing 19 people and injuring 27 others.

However, this photograph is not related to the incident. It dates back to 9 April 2016, and shows Razia Noorizad Didar, an employee of Afghan entertainment channel Tolo TV. Didar was on a bus when it was rammed by Taliban suicide bomber, killing seven people.

CLAIM

The photo is being shared to claim that it shows one of the students who was injured in the bombing at the Kaaj Educational Centre.

Archives of similar posts on social media can be seen here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We ran a reverse image search on the photo using Microsoft Bing and came across the same photo on Getty Images, which mentioned that the photo was taken on 9 April 2016.

The caption identified the woman as Razia Noorizad Didar, an employee of Afghan channel, Tolo TV, who was severely injured after a car driven by a Taliban suicide bomber rammed into the company bus she was travelling in.

Didar lost sight in one eye, and suffered multiple fractures, it said, adding that her face was scarred due to shrapnel and burns.

We found the same photograph in a TIME photo story, which documented casualties due to explosives and shrapnel in Afghanistan, in the 20 years (2001 – 2021) that the United States military was present in the country to combat the Taliban forces.

TOLO News had also reported that seven of its employees were killed on 20 January 2016, and another 26 were injured in the attack for which Taliban had claimed responsibility.

The news organisation had condoled the demise of its employees in a tweet the day of the attack.

Evidently, a six-year-old photo of a woman is being shared as that of a victim of the recent suicide bombing at an education centre in Afghanistan's Kabul.

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