Claim: A video shows a Hindu woman being dragged by her hair and beaten in Pakistan. Fact: The incident occurred in January 2022 when a woman was tortured in Sialkot allegedly over a land dispute. Authorities arrested the culprits at that time. There was no communal angle to the assault. On 27 August 2022, Indian […]
Claim: A form circulating on social media asks individuals affected by the torrential rains and flooding in Sindh to submit information to obtain relief funds from the Government of Sindh. Fact: The Sindh government has not issued this form. A spokesperson for Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has termed it “not genuine”. A form […]
Claim: Social media posts claim that an international magazine published a cartoon showing Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan polishing the shoes of US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu. Fact: The cartoon is actually a stock image sourced from a 1902 children’s magazine called Chatterbox. […]
Claim: Actor Johnny Depp participated in an Ashura ritual in Karbala, Iraq on 10 Muharram of Islamic calendar. Fact: The man seen in the viral video is not Johnny Depp but, in fact, Iranian model Amin Sal’es. On 8 August 2022, Twitter user @mizsworld shared the picture of a man with long hair and sunglasses […]
Claim: A video shows a man lying naked on a bed, with a white cloth over his genitals and bruises on his backside. Social media users claim the man is former prime minister Imran Khan’s aide, Dr Shahbaz Gill. Fact: The man is not Dr Shahbaz Gill as a longer version of the same clip […]
Claim: The World Animal Protection (WAP) condemned the arrest of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan’s aide, Dr Shahbaz Gill, in a Twitter post. Fact: WAP has not released any statement regarding the arrest of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan’s aide, Dr Shahbaz Gill. On 9 August 2022, Facebook user ‘Adeel Ali Khan’ posted […]
Claim: News anchor Syed Ali Haider talks about a case of sexual harassment at Quetta’s Heart and General Hospital. He links a viral clip of a doctor sexually assaulting a patient during a surgery to a video of a woman demanding justice for being harassed during surgery. Fact: The video of a doctor sexually assaulting […]
Claim: A video shows former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s aide, Shahbaz Gill, meeting his children while in detention following his arrest last week. Fact: The video does not show Shahbaz Gill or his children but about a couple of children who allegedly ran away from home due to an abusive father. On 13 August 2022, […]
Claim: A picture shows former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed lying in a hospital bed after it was claimed he checked in there to “hide” from the consequences of his past actions. Fact: The picture is not recent and is, in fact, from 2019, when Sheikh Rashid was admitted to a hospital after experiencing pain […]
Claim: The title of a Facebook video claims that two biological siblings in Pakistan married each other. Fact: The married couple in the video are not biological siblings. They were born to different parents; they do not have the same father or mother, nor are they related to each other. On 29 July 2022, Facebook […]
Claim: Social media users, especially those aligned with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), allege that former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s aide, Shahbaz Gill, and his driver were beaten by police while being arrested in Islamabad on 9 August 2020. Fact: CCTV footage of the arrest shows Shahbaz Gill was shifted to another vehicle peacefully and not tortured; […]
Claim: A video shows four SUVs were swept away in a flash flood in Pakistan. Fact: The video is, in fact, from September 2020 when flash floods hit Sharjah and the vehicles were swept away in the Wadi Shees. Earlier this month, Facebook user ‘Muhammad Babbar Khan’ posted a reel — the social media platform’s […]