Claim: A viral video shows Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and other members of the government inside the Masjid Nabawi in Medina, Saudi Arabia, with onlookers chanting the slogans, “Jiye Bhutto [Long live Bhutto]” and “Wazir-e-Azam Zindabad [Long live the prime minister].”
Fact: Onlookers did not chant, ‘Jiye Bhutto’ during Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s visit to Medina. The audio of the viral clip in question has been altered to add in the chants; in the original, no chants can be heard.
On 29 April 2022, Facebook user ‘Abu BaGhi’ shared a video showing people chanting Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) slogans, including “Jiye Bhutto [Long live Bhutto]” and “Wazir-e-Azam Zindabad [Long live the prime minister]”, when Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and other members of the government visited the Masjid Nabawi in Medina during Bhutto-Zardari’s recent visit Saudi Arabia.
The Facebook post by ‘Abu BaGhi’ was accompanied by the following caption:
“جو کل ہوا وہ غلط تھا
جو آج ہورہا ہے یہ کیا ہے؟
[What happened yesterday was wrong
What should we call what’s happening today?]”
Numerous people said in the comments under the post in question that the video was edited, with a clip of the chants dubbed onto the original audio.
Bhutto-Zardari, who is also the PPP chairperson, was in Saudi Arabia on an official visit as part of the delegation of leaders of the newly-formed government of allied parties under the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) banner.
Fact or fiction?
Soch Fact Check used the search term “Bilawal Masjid” on different platforms — including Twitter and Facebook — to investigate the source of the video.
On Facebook, Soch Fact Check found two posts — here and here — by Wajid Jellani, the individual who appears to have made the original video. Both videos were posted on 28 April. Jellani shot the video through a phone’s front-facing camera, i.e., in selfie mode — in the video, he can be seen walking in the same direction as Bhutto-Zardari and his entourage. His clips have more than 32,000 and 21,000 views, respectively. In the original video posted by Jellani, no chants can be heard.
Jellani, who is based in Islamabad, captioned one post, “Beloved chairman ppp Bilawal sb in Masjid e Nabvi Madina pak Salam ka Mashaa Allah jawab love you Bilawal sb,” and the other, “Masjid e Nabvi Madina pak beloved Bilawal sb.”
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis from 28 April to date using the following search terms:
- “Bilawal Masjid”
- “بلاول مسجد”
The first search term turned up 163 posts with over 43,443 interactions, while the second revealed more than 1,550 posts with 207,726 interactions.
The most watched videos on Facebook were posted by Imran Riaz Khan Official Fans, the verified account of Sajid Khan, Noon Leak, and Khabar Online with more than 32,000, 20,000, 4,100, and 1,000 views, respectively. Others can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Twitter, the video was shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
A video by Trending Nasim, a verified YouTube channel, also shared the edited video.
Conclusion: Onlookers did not chant ‘Jiye Bhutto’ during Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s recent visit to Medina. The audio of the viral clip in question has been altered to add in the chants. The audio of the clip has been altered to add the chants; in the original, there are no slogans being shouted.