Fact Check: Old video of PTI protest in Pakistan FALSELY shared as recent after Imran Khan arrest

By Riddhish Dutta: Political unrest in Pakistan reached a new peak after the fresh arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on August 5. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman was sentenced to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case by an Islamabad trial court. Since then, the country has witnessed a series of protests by PTI supporters.

In its aftermath, a video of a protest went viral on social media. Hundreds of protesters could be seen gathered both on top of and under a bridge. Many attributed these visuals to a protest in Pakistan's Faizabad after Khan’s arrest.

"Visuals of protest after Imran Khan's arrest in Faizabad, Pakistan right now," read one such tweet. Its archived version can be seen here.

India Today, however, found that the video is at least nine months old and unrelated to Imran Khan's recent arrest.

Our Probe

Reverse-searching keyframes from the viral video led us to an Indonesian news report from November 5, 2022, that featured a video of a similar protest.

As seen in the viral video, this video shows the same bridge with a mob. The report mentioned that this protest was held on November 4, 2022, in Rawalpindi, a day after Imran Khan was shot. Reportedly, protestors headed towards the capital city of Islamabad and pelted stones.

In a subsequent search, we stumbled upon a report in Al Arabiya with the same bridge featured in it. The caption of the photo read, "File photo of a protest in Rawalpindi, Pakistan November 4, 2022." A Daily Mail report also carried photographs from the same protest site and mentioned that it took place in Rawalpindi.

A refined search with Urdu keywords helped us to find an older version of the viral clip shared on November 4, 2022. A Pakistani journalist named Khurram Iqbal tweeted this video and wrote in Urdu, "Tehreek-e-Insaf workers and Islamabad Police, face to face in Faizabad."

Pakistan's Faizabad is located at the end of Rawalpindi city and works like a junction or connector between Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Additionally, we searched for English and Urdu keywords to determine whether a similar demonstration took place after Khan's arrest on August 5, but found nothing.

It is therefore safe to conclude that an old video of a PTI protest has been falsely shared as recent.