Claim: A video shared on Facebook shows former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha making “shocking revelations” about the country’s nuclear assets being “at risk”.
Fact: The video does not show Lt Gen Shuja Pasha. It appears to have been taken from the now-deleted YouTube channel of Pakistan Army veteran Captain (R) Ejaz Raja.
On 22 June 2022, Facebook page ‘Pakistan Affairs & Technologies’ published a video, claiming that it shows Pakistan’s former ISI chief Lt Gen Shuja Pasha making “shocking revelations” about the country’s nuclear assets being “at risk” and issuing a “strong message to fellow generals”.
The video — which was viewed by more than 705,000 Facebook users and subsequently went viral on numerous other social media platforms, including Twitter, YouTube, and even TikTok — is captioned as follows:
“آئی ایس آئی کے سابق چیف جنرل شجاع پاشا کے ہوشربا انکشافات
قوم کے لئے اہم پیغام – پاکستان کے ایٹمی اثاثے خطرے میں ہونے کا انکشاف کر دیا۔۔۔ ساتھی جرنیلوں کو سخت پیغام
یا اللہ رحم!!!
[Shocking revelations by former ISI chief General Shuja Pasha
Important message to the nation, reveals that Pakistan’s nuclear assets are at risk. Strong message to fellow generals.
O Allah, have mercy!!!
Following call-outs on various social media platforms, the Facebook page ‘Pakistan Affairs & Technologies’ updated the caption of their post to include the phrases, “Don’t know if this video is fake or original; the man in the video is believed to be former ISI chief General Shuja Pasha,” and “Some people think that this is not General Shuja Pasha? Can you confirm? Note: This video was taken from a YouTube channel.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check used Google Lens, Google Reverse Image Search, and TinEye Reverse Image Search to ascertain the source of the video.
The Google tools led us to numerous results of the video on social media, while the TinEye search turned up a URL first saved on 19 November 2021. The URL led to an image of a living room on royalty-free stock media website Pixabay.
Scrolling through various comments and quote tweets on posts sharing the video, Soch Fact Check found a post by Twitter user @KTMurad, who attached a clip in which the man in the viral video says his name is Captain (R) Ejaz Raja.
Capt (R) Raja’s YouTube channel is called “AnalyticaDDR with Captain Ejaz Raja.” The channel, however, appears to have been deleted.
A Google search revealed a caption from one of his videos, as visible in the image below, which states, “#MereSajanMereBaily #ArmyGenerals #ImranKhanPTI Hi, I am Captain (R) Ejaz Raja and this is my Official YouTube channel AnalyticaDDR, Which stands for “Analysis….”
Twitter user @Abdulha82607762 and Facebook page ‘Love is life’ shared one of the videos from the now-deleted channel, but clicking on the link now brings up the message, “This video has been removed by the uploader.”
Soch Fact Check has summarised our process in the figure below:
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the three-day period from 21 June to 24 June 2022 using the following search terms:
- “شجاع پاشا ”
- “آئی ایس آئی کے سابق چیف جنرل شجاع پاشا کے ہوشربا انکشافات”
- “Shuja Pasha”
The first search term turned up more than 1,200 posts with over 85,300 interactions on Facebook, while the second and third search terms garnered 64,577 interactions across 743 posts and 55,869 interactions across 222 posts, respectively.
The video posted by Facebook page ‘Pakistan Affairs & Technologies’ was viewed by more than 705,000 people and received over 17,400 reactions, 4,400 comments, and 31,000 shares.
Another video we found through CrowdTangle was shared by Facebook page ‘Haroon Awan’ and viewed by over one million people and received more than 67,000 reactions, 9,200 comments, and 47,000 shares.
Multiple YouTube- and Facebook-based media outlets also shared collages of clickbait news clippings, a compilation of which is shown below. Some of these are from verified YouTube accounts such as ‘Point To Point’, ‘Pakilinks News’, ‘Pakistan News’, and ‘Fast Point’.
The video also became viral on TikTok; a user with the handle @tiktokptiofficial also posted the clip here and here. Other posts are available here, here, here, and here.
On Twitter, the clip appeared here, here, here, here, and here, as well as in this four-part thread (first, second, third, and fourth).
Conclusion: A viral video does not show Pakistan’s former spymaster Lt Gen Shuja Pasha making “shocking revelations” about the country’s nuclear assets being “at risk”. The video appears to have been taken from the now-deleted YouTube channel of another Pakistan Army veteran and bears no connection with Gen Pasha.