Old protest video resurfaced to claim new rally by ex-Pakistan PM's supporters after his sentencing

"Faizabad at this moment. People will not accept it," reads the Urdu-language caption of a video shared on Facebook on August 5, 2023 by a user who says they are affiliated with the student wing of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

The video, which appears to show a crowd of protesters gathering on a road, was shared shortly after a court in Islamabad sentenced Khan to three years in jail for graft -- one of the more than 200 cases he has faced since being ousted as prime minister in a no-confidence vote in April 2022.

The jail term has ruled him out from contesting upcoming elections.

The reaction to Khan's jailing 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.

It also prompted a crackdown that saw almost all of the top leadership of his PTI party arrested or forced into hiding, leaving the party scrambling to set up a replacement decision-making body.

There were no reports of a protest in Faizabad by Khan's supporters following his jailing, but there were small, scattered protests -- including outside Lahore High Court, where a few dozen people gathered.

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A screenshot of the false post taken on August 22, 2023.

The same clip was also shared alongside similar claims on Facebook here and here, and on X -- formerly known as Twitter -- here.

But the video in the misleading post has circulated since November 2022 after an attempt was made on the former prime minister's life.

Faizabad clashes

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video led to the same clip shared in a post on X on November 4, 2022 (archived link).

It was posted by Hum News journalist Khurram Iqbal with the caption, "Tehreek-e-Insaf workers and Islamabad Police, FC face to face in Faizabad".

"FC" refers to the Frontier Constabulary, an auxiliary force occasionally called in to help deal with unrest (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the false Facebook post (left) and the post on X from November 4, 2022 (right):

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Screenshot comparison between the false Facebook post (left) and the post on X from November 4, 2022 (right)

The seven-second clip shows protesters assembling at the Faizabad interchange between Rawalpindi and Islamabad, a day after Khan was shot in the leg in an assassination attempt.

The former international cricket star had been leading a chaotic convoy of thousands from Lahore towards Islamabad, campaigning for fresh elections.

A few frames from the clip were also briefly shown at the 1:29 mark of an Aaj TV report from November 4, 2022 (archived link). The report, available on Aaj TV's YouTube channel, is titled "PTI Protest Faizabad".

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video used in the false post (left) and the same footage used in the Aaj TV report (right):

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Screenshot comparison of the video used in the false post (left) and the same footage used in the Aaj TV report (right)

A still from the clip was used in an article about the protests by Aaj TV on their website, while a similar image was used by Dawn News TV (archived links here and here).

Traffic police in Islamabad posted updates regarding the situation on X here and here on November 4, 2022, stating that protesters armed with sticks and slingshots were gathering at Faizabad and were pelting stones at Islamabad police (archived links here and here).

AFP has also debunked false claims related to Khan's jailing here and here.