Mass burial of students in Iran: Haunting photo mired in false fact-check muddle

by Prantik Ali

The US–Israel joint strikes on Iran, which began on February 28, have reportedly taken a heavy civilian toll, including a devastating attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab in southern Iran. Iranian state media reported that at least 168 people — most of them schoolchildren — were killed in the bombing, while nearly 100 others were injured.

A report by The Guardian painted a picture of the destruction: “Photographs and verified videos from the site…show children’s bodies lying partly buried under the debris. In one video, a very small child’s severed arm is pulled from the rubble.” The UNESCO condemned the bombing, calling it a “grave violation” of international humanitarian law.

In this context, several users, including Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, posted an aerial photo showing proceedings of a mass burial, with graves being dug by bulldozers.

Shrinate wrote that graves were being dug to bury schoolgirls killed in US-Israel bombing.

Pro-BJP influencer and Supreme Court lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha (@shashank_ssj) was quick to call out this post, claiming that the photo of the mass grave used by Supriya Shrinate was an old photograph showing COVID-stricken Indonesia. (Archive)

At the time of this article being written, Shashank Jha’s post which sought to debunk the claims of the photo being shot in Iran, has been viewed more than 6 lakh times, and has been re-shared more than 3,000 times.

On March 4, Jha again ‘fact-checked’ another photo depicting the same burial site, this time replying to an X post by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai. (Archive)

Fact Check

On running a reverse image search on the contentious photograph, we traced it to an X post uploaded on March 3 by Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi. In the post, he claimed the graves were being dug for “more than 160 innocent young girls who were killed in the US-Israeli bombing” of a primary school in Minab.

The photo was also used in reports published by NDTV, Hindustan Times, India Today, Deccan Herald and others.

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We also found that Reuters had shared the photo in its official website on March 2, 2026, giving credit to the Iranian Foreign Media Department/West Asian News Agency.

We could also geolocate the place and independently establish that it showed the Minab Cemetery in Iran. Below is a comparison between an image of the burial site from Google Maps and one from an X post by the official handle of the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in India, which can be seen here.

Note that the photo that Rajdeep Sardesai shared was among the four posted by the embassy.

To sum up, the photos shared by Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate and journalist Rajdeep Sardesai as showing the mass burial of school children in Iran are authentic. The ‘fact-checks’ by pro-BJP handle Shashank Shekhar Jha are baseless and false.

Alt News has fact-checked false and misleading claims by Shashank Shekhar Jha several times in the past. Readers can access these stories here.

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