No, this is not a real photo of Indian opposition politicians waiting to meet Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 12, 2019 at 12:00
- 3 min read
- By AFP India
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The doctored image has been shared more than 4,500 times since it was published here on April 7, 2019 in a Facebook post which claims it shows the Indian opposition politicians sitting in the corner of a room while the Pakistani prime minister talks to the country's army chief.
The misleading post’s caption says in the regional Indian language of Kannada: “If you vote for Congress, you’re voting for Pakistan. Look at the picture, the slaves of Pakistan are sitting in the corner.”
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:
The image purportedly shows opposition politicians West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Indian National Congress party president Rahul Gandhi, Punjab's state minister for tourism and culture Navjot Singh Sidhu, and MP for Bihar Shatrughan Sinha sitting on chairs behind Imran Khan.
The doctored image also appears to show Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal performing an Islamic prayer outside the window.
The misleading image with similar captions has been posted multiple times on Facebook, for example here and here, and on Twitter, for example here.
A Google reverse image search found the photo has been doctored from an original image posted here on the Government of Pakistan’s official Twitter page @pid_gov on April 4, 2019.
Below is a screenshot of the original image posted on Twitter:
The caption in Urdu along with the original image translates as: “Prime Minister Imran Khan met Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. They exchanged views on important security related issues during the meeting.”
The original image was widely used by Pakistani media in their coverage of the meeting, for example here and here.
Rahul Gandhi was visiting the south Indian state of Kerala’s Wayanad district to submit his election nomination papers to local authorities on April 4, 2019.
Below is a April 4, 2019 tweet from his official Twitter account containing pictures of him submitting nomination papers and campaigning for votes.
I am overwhelmed by the love and affection of the people of Wayanad in Kerala, where I filed my nomination today for the Lok Sabha. Thank you for your support & warm welcome!
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 4, 2019
I also want to wish the journalists injured in a mishap during our road show a speedy recovery. pic.twitter.com/MLDAAdeNcc
A reverse image search on Yandex found multiple other photographs showing Prime Minister Imran Khan meeting with different dignitaries in the same room, with the same four empty chairs in the background.
Below is a screenshot of images in the Yandex search results:
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