Claim: A photo shows a police officer killed when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers fired bullets during the recant stand-off at Zaman Park in Lahore.
Fact: The photo actually shows a police constable who was shot dead on 24 May 2022 when a bullet fired from a rooftop hit him in Lahore.
Fact or Fiction?
On 15 March 2023, Twitter user King Atif Gujjar shared a photo claiming that it shows a police officer who was killed due to firing by PTI supporters in Lahore following the stand-off at Zaman Park.
“لاہور دہشت گرد تنظیم پی ٹی آئی کے دہشت گرد کی فائرنگ پولیس جوان احمد شہید ۔
عمرانی فتنے کو دفن کرنا ہوگا اسی میں ریاست کی بھلائی ہے،،
#دہشتگرد_تنظیم_پی_ٹی_آئی #دہشگردPTIکو_بین_کرو [Police officer Ahmed was shot dead by PTI terrorists in Lahore. The ‘Imran’ curse has to be buried, therein lies the good of the state]”, his tweet reads.
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be false. Taking a cue from the timestamp on the photo which suggests that it was taken on 24 May 2022, we searched Google with the keywords “Police officer die May 2022 Pakistan” and found an article by the Express Tribune.
The report published on 24 May 2022 is titled, “Govt, PTI accuse each other for cop’s death.” It stated that constable Kamal Ahmed was shot dead on 24 May 2022 when a bullet fired from a rooftop hit him. The incident happened during a raid in Lahore which coincided with the post-midnight police crackdown on PTI leaders’ residences ahead of the party’s planned long march to Islamabad on May 25.
PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz had also tweeted about the constable’s death. His photo was also shared here and here on Twitter in May 2022.
Multiple outlets, including Dawn, Samaa, The Nation and 24 News HD, had reported on the incident.
According to Dawn, the then DIG Lahore Operations had told reporters that a bullet hit the upper part of the constable’s chest.
Soch Fact Check compared the viral photo with the ones carried by media outlets in their articles and ascertained that it’s the same person.
Virality:
The photo was shared here, here, here, here, here, here and here on Twitter.
On Facebook, it was posted here, here, here and here.
Conclusion: The viral photo is from May 2022, when a police officer was shot dead during a raid in Lahore which coincided with a police crackdown on PTI leaders’ residences ahead of the party’s planned long march to Islamabad on May 25.