Claim: A video on Facebook shows Iman Mazari screaming at a police officer because her mother, Shireen Mazari, was being tortured in the adjacent room after her recent arrest.
Fact: The video is from 2022 when Iman Mazari intervened in a case of custodial torture by the police against a random citizen. It is being reshared and passed off as a recent incident related to Shireen Mazari’s arrest.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shireen Mazari was arrested on 12 May 2023 by the Islamabad Police. Her arrest sparked protests and also led to a significant amount of viral misinformation. Later she was granted bail and rearrested four times in the last month. Last week she announced that she will be resigning from the party as well as politics. Following the exodus of senior PTI politicians from the party, Imran Khan announced that the basic party membership of all the defectors will be revoked.
On 24 May 2023, a Facebook page called Support Pakistan posted a video with the caption, “Video of torture on Shireen Mazari. If my mother is a criminal, present her in court; torturing her like this is a crime, Iman Mazari”. The video shows Iman Mazari, the daughter of Shireen Mazari, screaming at a police officer and accusing him of torturing someone in the adjacent room.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check investigated the claim after some commented that the video was old. A reverse image search on the video keyframes found a YouTube video from 19 October 2022. The same video was uploaded with the title, “Iman Mazari clash with Islamabad police SHO suspended”. The voiceover in the video says that Iman Mazari witnessed a case of police violence against a citizen at the G-9 Islamabad Police and confronted the policeman. An article from Dawn published on 8 October 2022 confirms these details.
Furthermore, a keyword search on Google showed that Iman Mazari also tweeted about the incident on 8 October 2022. She posted the same video and wrote, “Thank God there were multiple witnesses other than me who heard the screams. This SHO Irshad has no business being on the police force. @ICT_Police must take action”
Virality
The video shared by Support Pakistan on Facebook received 48k likes, 3.4k comments, and 2.6m views. It was also shared here, here, here, and here between 24 and 26 May 2023.
Conclusion: A video of Iman Mazari confronting a police officer for torturing a citizen in 2022 is being falsely circulated as a recent incident related to her mother Shireen Mazari’s arrest in 2023.
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