Old protest clip falsely linked to ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan's arrest in August

Published on August 11, 2023 at 12:06
3 min read
By AFP Pakistan

Footage of crowds climbing a barbed fence has been viewed tens of thousands of times in social media posts that falsely claim it shows supporters of Pakistan's ex-prime minister Imran Khan at Attock prison, where he was jailed on August 5, 2023. The clip actually shows Khan supporters at a protest where they presented themselves for arrest outside a prison in Peshawar in February.

"The latest scenes of Attock prison," reads an Urdu-language Facebook post shared on August 6, 2023.

The footage shows crowds gathered around a prison building, with some men wearing red and green caps and scarfs -- the colours of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party -- trying to climb over a barbed gate.

"A large number of PTI party workers is present outside Attock prison. Intense sloganeering is going on. Open the gate, open the gate."

The clip -- which has more than 148,000 views -- resurfaced after Khan was sent to jail for three years after a court found him guilty of graft. He is being held at a colonial-era jail on the outskirts of historical Attock city, around 60 kilometres (40 miles) west of the capital Islamabad.

Some small, scattered protests by his supporters broke out across the country after police arrested the former international cricket star at his home in the eastern city of Lahore, AFP reported.

But the reaction to Khan's jailing so far has been vastly different to the outpouring of rage that followed his first arrest in May -- which sparked deadly violence as his supporters took to the streets in the tens of thousands and clashed with police.

Screenshot taken on August 9, 2023, of the false Facebook post.

The clip surfaced in similar posts here, here and here on Facebook, and here, here and here on Twitter -- which is being rebranded as 'X'.

Old protest

Reverse image searches of keyframes on Google found the clip in news reports about a protest in February outside a prison in the nortwestern city of Peshawar.

"The central jail Peshawar was sealed on Thursday amid Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) 'Jail Bharo Tehreek'", reads a report published on YouTube by Pakistani news channel Dunya TV on February 22, 2023 (archived link).

"Jail Bharo Tehreek" or "fill the prison movement" refers to a type of protest where rallyists offer themselves for arrest in an attempt to fill jails.

The PTI said it launched the protest to counter the government's attacks against the party.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in one of the false posts (left) and the report by Dunya TV (right) with same two protesters highlighted:

a screenshots comparison of the video in the misleading post (left) and video of Dunya television (right) and same two protestors in the video from a different angle highlighted by AFP in blue colour, while yellow colour circles show the word Peshawar on the video report :

Another frame in the video in the false posts corresponds to a scene shown in a Facebook post from February about the same protest.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and the Facebook post (right) with the same overhead water tank marked by AFP:

A screenshots comparison of the misleading post (left) and a Facebook post from February 2023 (right) showing the same overhead water tank marked in blue circles by AFP:

Pakistan's leading English daily Dawn reported that PTI workers risked legal action for jumping the fence during the protest (archived link).

Moreover, a visual analysis shows the protesters in the video were wearing warm clothing which suggests it was not filmed in August when it is hot and humid in Peshawar and in Attock.

Khan's ouster and his earlier detention sparked a wave of false and misleading claims.

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