Doctored image of Pakistan PM’s wedding misleads on social media

This article is more than one year old.
Published on July 20, 2021 at 07:01
1 min read
By AFP Pakistan

An image circulating on Facebook and Twitter purports to show Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan at his wedding in 2018 pictured sitting next to a Pakistani businessman arrested over an alleged assault. The image, however, has been doctored to include the arrested man's face.

"This is Usman Mirza, the same goon who beat up a couple in Islamabad and raped them along with his friends," reads the caption in a Facebook post published on July 13, 2021.

It has been shared more than 28,000 times.

The image appears to show Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan with his wife Bushra Maneka surrounded by wedding guests.

The man to Khan's left, whose face has been circled in red, appears to be Usman Mirza, a businessman accused of harassing and beating a couple in Islamabad.

The ordeal was filmed and shared online in a viral video that has sparked outrage in Pakistan.

Islamabad police said on July 7 they had arrested Mirza.

A screenshot taken on July 16, 2021, of the misleading Facebook post ( AFP)

The photo was also shared here, here and here on Facebook; and here, here and here on Twitter alongside a similar claim.

The image, however, has been doctored to include Mirza's face.

A keyword search found the original photo published here by Pakistani newspaper Dawn on February 18, 2018.

The man sitting to Khan's left is in fact an aide, Sayed Z Bukhari, not Usman Mirza.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the original image (L) and the doctored image (R):

A screenshot comparison of the original image (L) and the doctored image (R) ( AFP)

AFP previously debunked posts falsely purporting to show Mirza's face on a political campaign poster.

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