Claim: A video shows Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa face off against law and enforcement agencies on Kashmir Highway – also known as Srinagar Highway – in Islamabad, following former prime minister Imran Khan’s arrest.
Fact: The video is unrelated to Khan’s arrest. In fact, it is from 2021 when Honduran migrants clashed with Guatemalan soldiers in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, on 17 January 2021 in an attempt to cross into the United States.
Fact or Fiction?
On 10 May 2023, Pakistan Republic (@republicdotpk) posted a video on Twitter with the claim that the footage shows PTI supporters gathered at Kashmir Highway, Islamabad, to protest against Imran Khan’s arrest.
“Exclusive Footage from Kashmir Highway, Islamabad. Huge crowd came from KP, according to the ground reports,” their tweet reads.
Soch Fact Check found through reverse image search tools that the video is not recent. The clip is, in fact, from Guatemala, a country in Central America, and not related to the arrest of Imran Khan.
The search turned up a Daily Mail article titled “Let us in, Joe! Caravan of 1,000 Honduran migrants marches towards US border and asks Biden to ‘honor his commitments’ to asylum seekers”.
The report states that Honduran migrants clashed with Guatemalan soldiers in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, on 17 January 2021, making their way towards the US border in the form of a migrant caravan to escape a dangerous life. Guatemalan soldiers and policemen formed a human barricade to stop the migrants, estimated to be between 8,000 to 9,000.
The article also features the same video as the viral video. “Clashes break out between Guatemalan police and migrant caravan,” it is titled.
The comparison visual below highlights some markers that show similarities in both.
Soch Fact Check found two other articles, here and here, by the Daily Mail reporting on the incident. The development came a week before Joe Biden, who promised to adopt a more humane approach to migration than his predecessor Donald Trump, assumed the office of the US president on 20 January 2021.
Virality:
The claim was found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here on Twitter.
The video was posted here, here and here on Facebook.
Conclusion: The video was shot in Guatemala in January 2021 and has nothing to do with Khan’s arrest.