Blood-spattered car image falsely linked to killing of Pakistani journalist in Kenya
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 28, 2022 at 07:32
- 3 min read
- By AFP Pakistan
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The photo was shared in this tweet on October 24, 2022 by an account of Jamhoor TV, an Islamabad-based broadcaster.
It shows an empty car with blood spattered on the front seats.
The photo's caption reads: "Picture of car wherein Arshad Sharif was shot on his head by sniper. #ArshadSharif".
Sharif, a strident critic of Pakistan's powerful military establishment and supporter of former premier Imran Khan, died when Kenyan police opened fire on his car at a roadblock outside the capital on October 23, 2022, AFP reported here.
Below is a screenshot of the false tweet:
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The same image has been shared multiple times alongside a similar claim here, here and here on Twitter; and here and here on Facebook.
But the claim is false. The photo predates Sharif's death by more than two years.
The same photo has circulated on social media and in local media reports since 2020 about the murder of a Muslim cleric Maulana Adil Khan in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi. Maulana is an honorific title.
The photo of the bloody car interior was published in this report by Karachi-based site Oye Yeah on October 11, 2020 about Khan's assassination.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the false post (left) and the one published by Oyeyeah.com (right):
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The caption reads: "Photo of Jamia Farooqia administrator Maulana Dr. Adil Khan’s car’s interior, received via Whatsapp on Oct 10, 2020".
Jamia Farooqia is an Islamic seminary in Pakistan.
On the same day, the photo also appeared in this Facebook post by M.Usman khan, an account with more than 13,000 followers.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the false post (left) and the one published in the Facebook post in October 2020 (right):
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It also appeared in this Facebook post by Maslak - e - Deoband and in this Facebook post by Wahdat-e-Asatiza. Both accounts describe themselves as educational organisations.
Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn also reported the murder of Khan here on October 10, 2020.
Khan, a religious scholar and head of Karachi's Jamia Farooqia seminary, was shot dead along with his driver in a suspected targeted attack in the city on October 10, 2020, Dawn said.
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