Video shows PTI march in Italy, not demonstration in UK over Pakistan army chief's visit

Published on April 8, 2025 at 07:41
3 min read
By Rimal FARRUKH, AFP Pakistan

After General Syed Asim Munir visited the United Kingdom in February 2025, a video was shared in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed a protest against him in London. While there was a demonstration against the Pakistan military chief during his trip to the British capital, the video in fact shows a protest held by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in Brescia, Italy in November 2024.

The video, showing a crowd of people bearing PTI flags marching along a road, was posted on X on February 20, 2025.

"Pakistanis protest Asim Munir's visit to London. There is a lot of anger among Pakistanis around the world over the ongoing human rights violations in Pakistan," reads the Urdu-language caption of the video, which was viewed more than 131,000 times.

General Syed Asim Munir is Pakistan's military chief, a position long considered the real power in the nuclear-armed Islamic nation of 250 million people.

The video circulated as Munir wrapped up a visit to the United Kingdom, where he attended the 7th Regional Stabilisation Conference at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (archived link).

Screenshot of the false X post, captured on April 7, 2025

The video was also shared as jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's popularity continues to undermine the shaky coalition government that kept his PTI party from power in elections in February 2024 (archived link).

Khan, who was ousted as prime minister in 2022 and has been jailed since August 2023, was barred from standing in the polls and his PTI party was hamstrung by a widespread crackdown.

Nonetheless, candidates loyal to Khan won more seats than any other party but a coalition led by two former rival parties considered allies of the military shut them out of power (archived link).

The video was also shared in similar posts claiming it showed a protest in London on Facebook here, here and here.

While PTI supporters in London staged a protest during Munir's visit, the clip circulating online shows a different demonstration held in Italy months earlier (archived here and here).

PTI protest in Brescia

Reverse image and keyword searches led to the same footage posted on Facebook by PTI's Punjab chapter on November 25, 2024 (archived link).

Its description reads: "A Huge protest was demonstrated by PTI Italy in Brescia, Pakistan's (sic) from all over Italy joined and showed support for Imran Khan and voiced against worst human rights abuses in Pakistan."

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the footage from November 2024 (right)

At the time, convoys of Khan supporters marched on Islamabad to join protests over his incarceration after a day of deadly confrontations between marchers and security forces (archived link).

Overseas Pakistanis also responded to the call for protests in dozens of countries, including Italy, according to the PTI (archived link).

The falsely shared footage matches Google Street View imagery from Brescia's Via Cefalonia (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and Google Street View imagery from Brescia (right)

Pakistani fact-checking organisation Soch Fact Check also debunked the false claim (archived link).

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