Claim: A video shows CCTV footage of a woman being robbed in Karachi in 2024.
Fact: The video is from August 2023 and shows a mugging incident in Rawalpindi’s Hukamdad area.
On 4 April 2024, Soch Fact Check received a video on WhatsApp showing closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of a mugging wherein two robbers snatch a woman’s purse and other valuables while keeping her in a chokehold.
The following text is superimposed on the video, which is captioned, “Allah Hafiz is Karachi or Pakistan ka”.
“میرے خیال سے اب کچھ نہیں رہ گیا اسکے بعد … یہ لوگ اس حد تک پہنچ گئے۔ شیئر کرے تاکہ یہ بندے پکڑے جائیں۔
[I don’t think there’s anything left after this … These people have stooped to this level. Share it so that these men are caught.]”
The video has gone viral amid a surge in the number of street crimes in Karachi.
Worsening law and order in Karachi
At least “48 people died resisting street muggings in Karachi during the last three months”, according to Arab News (archive), which cited local media reports, with the paramilitary Rangers “taking stringent security measures” closer to Eid.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed (archive) provincial authorities to “restore” the law and order situation in one month. In the midst of this, political parties are trading jibes and shifting blame at each other, The Express Tribune reported (archive).
Read more: 2009 video of ATM mugging in Karachi viral on social media
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has criticised Sindh’s ruling party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), saying citizens should come together for each other’s safety if authorities were unable to provide a solution, according to the publication. MQM-P lawmaker Taha Ahmed Khan also submitted a resolution demanding PKR 5 million worth of compensation for the families of people killed by the street criminals.
However, as per a recent statement (archive) by Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, associated with the PPP, the situation in Karachi is “currently much better” and a “hype had been created over the issue of street crime”.
Also read: Did a beggar enter a plane in Karachi?
Last month, the newly-appointed Sindh Cabinet was informed (archive) of nearly 16,000 street crimes that have taken place in Karachi since January. At that time too, Lanjar claimed that cases of street crime had decreased in the city.
Recently, Dawn reported (archive) that data presented in a high-level security meeting showed “more than 250 Karachiites were shot dead and 1,052 others were wounded by street criminals between 2022 and March 28, 2024”. The publication also cited police sources as saying there had been a “significant increase in violent street crimes” in the last three years.
Related: Karachi grid station blast falsely shared as explosion at nuclear facility
The situation is dire enough that the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has sounded the alarm, expressing “deep concern” over the fact that “the state of law and order in Karachi has deteriorated alarmingly”.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the video and found that it is neither recent nor from Karachi.
The clip originally surfaced in 2023 and shows an incident of mugging in Rawalpindi. It was posted here and here on 28 August 2023 on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), respectively.
Numerous publications, including Dunya News, ARY News, and Minute Mirror, reported on the incident, with The Express Tribune reporting a few days later that the Rawalpindi police had arrested one of the two robbers.
Read more: Claim by Sindh’s top cop about Karachi’s crime rate are false
The incident took place “in the Hukamdad area within the limits of Waris Khan police station”, the publication added, and the robbers had managed to escape with the woman’s gold earrings and other valuables.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video posted here on X, where it was viewed over 11,600 times. It was also shared by Mustafa Azizabadi, the convener of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London’s (MQM-L) Central Coordination Committee, here, gaining more than 35,400 views.
On Facebook, the clip was shared here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: A video claiming to show a woman being robbed in Karachi in 2024 is, in fact, from August 2023 and shows a mugging incident in Rawalpindi’s Hukamdad area.
Background image in cover photo: Maxim Hopman
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