Doctored picture falsely shared as ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan in jail

"This photo has dominated social media," reads an Urdu-language Facebook post with more than 52,000 shares.

"I sacrifice myself for you, love you my leader."

The doctored picture appears to show Khan behind bars, sitting on the floor and reading the Koran.

The Facebook post was shared on August 10, days after Khan -- Pakistan's ex-prime minister and chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party -- was jailed for three years over graft charges.

He has been held at a colonial-era prison on the outskirts of the city of Attock, around 60 kilometres (40 miles) west of the capital Islamabad.

Khan took office as prime minister in August 2018 and was unseated in a no-confidence motion in the federal parliament in April 2022 (archived link).

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A screenshot taken on August 12, 2023, of the misleading Facebook post.

The comments section of the Facebook post suggests some users believed the picture genuinely showed Khan in prison.

"May Allah keep Imran Khan under his protection and bestow him with good health. Amen," one person commented.

"Praise be to Allah, he (Imran Khan) is our prince," another wrote.

The doctored image was shared on Facebook here, here and here, and also on X -- previously known as Twitter -- here, here and here.

However, a reverse image search found the original photo posted in June 2023 by the PTI's Islamabad office (archived link).

The photo shows Ali Muhammad Khan, a PTI stalwart and former minister who was held on corruption charges before he was released from jail in July (archived link).

Below is the doctored image (left) and the original photo (right). In both pictures, water damage is seen on the wall (circled below in green), the man's hand and foot is in the same position on the mat (blue circle) and the iron bars of the cell are the same (yellow circle):

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A screenshots comparison of the image in the misleading post (left) and the original photo shared by the PTI (right) with similarities marked in matching colour circles by AFP: 

Pakistan's Dawn newspaper published a similar photo of Ali Muhammad Khan sitting on a floor mat behind bars with the same water damage pattern.

The photo featured in an article from June 29 about the rejection of his bail application by a court in northwestern Pakistani city of Mardan (archived link).

He was later released on bail in July following 80 days in prison (archived link).

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Photo of Ali Muhammad Khan in prison, published by Dawn newspaper

Ali Muhammad Khan told AFP via telephone that he has been jailed in Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Mardan, but he was never kept behind bars at Attock.

As of August 18, 2023, there have been no images of Imran Khan released through verified sources that show him in a prison cell at Attock jail.