Claim: A billboard in F-10 Markaz, Islamabad shows the faces of several high-ranking military officials stamped with a handprint and a phrase in Urdu script saying “Traitors of Pakistan”.
Fact: The billboard shows pictures of multiple journalists who have spoken in favour of Imran Khan and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). It also includes pictures of PTI politicians.
On 19 July 2024, an image of a billboard was circulated on WhatsApp and Facebook. It shows pictures of high-ranking military officials including Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir, former COAS Qamar Jawed Bajwa and the Director General of ISI Nadeem Anjum, among others. Their faces appear to be marked with a red handprint and the words “غدار وطن” [traitor to the country] were written on top of the billboard.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse searched the picture in the claim and found that a different version of the image was more widely shared on X, formerly Twitter. We found posts shared by journalists, activists, politicians and social media users here, here, here, here, and here, sharing the other version of the picture. Some of these posts also shared images of the second version of the billboard in other locations.
Soch Fact Check found the location of the billboard in the claim is F-10 Markaz, Islamabad, where the board can be seen on top of the building which hosts the Layers Bakeshop.
Upon closer inspection, when the two images are compared, it becomes clear that the image in the claim is a doctored version of the second version of the billboard.
The cut-outs of the faces of photographs of high-ranking military officials appear to have been superimposed onto the second version of the billboard as they appear to be in a straight line, not following the natural bend of the building on which the billboard is erected. The cut-outs of journalists, politicians and PTI activists, however, follow the curve of the building and do not appear superimposed.
The second version of the billboard also appears here, which according to this article, shows the same billboard erected on top of a commercial centre in Raja Bazaar, Rawalpindi. This version of the billboard shows journalists Ahmad Noorani, Shahid Aslam, Moeed Pirzada, Sabir Shakir, Shaheen Sehbai, Wajahat S Khan, vlogger Adil Raja, politician Shabaz Gill, and others. Some of these people have popularly been associated with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or have reported in favour of the party.
Soch Fact Check also spoke to Neha Tauseef, a lawyer in the Islamabad High Court and a resident of the city of Islamabad who confirmed that the version of the billboard she saw posted above Layers Bakeshop, as shown in the image in the claim, was the second version of the billboard and not the first one.
We also found this video shared on X, which shows one of the journalists from the second version of the billboard, standing in front of it and condemning the decision to have posted these billboards calling the journalists shown, traitors.
Virality
This image was widely shared on WhatsApp as it was labelled “Forwarded many times”, which means that it was shared with at least 5 private chats or WhatsApp groups.
We also found that the image was shared on Facebook here, and here.
Conclusion: A billboard was plastered in various parts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, showing journalists, politicians and activists being labelled as “Traitors of Pakistan”. A doctored version of this billboard shows high-ranking military officials, instead.
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Background image in cover photo: The News International
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