Claim: Two clips allegedly show journalist Imran Riaz Khan being welcomed by a crowd after he is found, with a voice-over narration claiming missing journalist Imran Riaz Khan was found on 30 July 2023, and after his release from alleged illegal detainment by the country’s authorities, former first lady Bushra Bibi gave him a grand welcome and also gave him a watch as a gift.
Fact: The two videos are old and unrelated to Imran Riaz Khan’s disappearance. They show him being released from different legal cases in 2022 and 2023. Bushra Bibi was not present or involved in any of the events. Imran Riaz Khan is still missing as of 31 July 2023.
On 30 July 2023, the YouTube channel ‘True Breaking News’ posted a video titled “Imran Riaz Khan Release Grand Welcome Bushra Bibi And Gift’. The video has two clips allegedly showing Imran Riaz Khan being welcomed by a crowd with the voice-over narration claiming he was welcomed by Bushra Bibi.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check verified the authenticity of the two videos by using Google Image Search to reverse search screenshots from the clips. We found that both videos are old and have nothing to do with Imran Riaz Khan’s disappearance.
The first video, where Riaz is wearing a brown Kameez, was taken on 9 July 2022. Soch Fact Check identified when the clip was taken by comparing it to other videos published when Khan was released on bail by the Lahore High Court. Journalist Sherin Zada posted another video from the same day on his YouTube channel, and GNN News posted an image taken after Khan’s release. In the reliably dated video and image, he is wearing the same attire at the same location, which confirms it is an old video from the same day.
The second video, where Khan is wearing an orange jacket and is showered with flowers, was taken on 3 February 2023, when Imran Riaz Khan was freed from the FIA’s custody after the case against him was dismissed. He was accused of spreading fake news about the government’s role in the wheat crisis. On 4 February 2023, Bol News uploaded another angle of the same sequence of events shown in the claim on their Youtube channel. Bushra Bibi was not present, involved, or related in any way to these events.
Moving on, if Imran Riaz Khan had been found, it would have been a major news story and covered by most media outlets. Soch Fact Check searched for the keywords “Imran Riaz” and “release” on Google and found no credible news or sources confirming the claim.
Additionally, Soch Fact Check contacted a constable at Civil line Police Station Sialkot, where the FIR about Khan’s disappearance was registered, who confirmed that Imran Riaz has not been recovered yet.
Soch Fact Check also spoke to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf media strategist Imran Ghazali, who denied the claims made in the video.
Virality
The video has received just over 115,000 views in just 21 hours after it was posted. Another video with the same claim was posted by the YouTube channel a few hours before this one, and it reached over 264,000 views.
Conclusion: The claim that Imran Riaz Khan was found and welcomed by Bushra Bibi is false. The videos used to support this claim are old and unrelated to his disappearance. Imran Riaz Khan is still missing as of 31 July 2023.