Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim: Video shows Rana Sikandar Hayat, the Education Minister of Punjab, Pakistan hitting and assaulting a woman.
Fact: The claim is false. The video was from 2021 and the assaulter was not Rana Sikandar Hayat.
A video is circulating on social media featuring a woman and a man sitting on a bed, being hit and assaulted by a man. Claims have emerged that the individual involved is Rana Sikandar Hayat, the Education Minister of Punjab, Pakistan. Posting the nearly a minute-long video on X, one user wrote, “An incident has come to light from Pakistan which has shaken the entire world. In Pakistan’s Punjab province, Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat in the Maryam Nawaz government stripped a girl and r@ped her in front of the camera. The crime of that girl and her partner was that they had participated in the protest against the r@pe of a girl in Lahore University. Now just imagine that when a Pakistani minister can openly r@pe a Muslim woman in front of the camera, then what will the people of Pakistan do with the Hindus?”
Many such claims can be seen here, here and here.
Fact Check/ Verification
A reverse image search of a keyframe of the viral video led us to a YouTube channel named ‘fazi tech08’, where the same video was posted on July 9, 2021. The title of that video is, ‘Osman Mirza viral video’.
After that, Newschecker ran a keyword search for “Usman Mirza video” and “Usman Mirza assault video”, which led us to a news report by ARY News dated July 7, 2021, with another version of the incident featuring the same couple and accused. Per the report, the accused Usman Mirza was arrested in Islamabad after the disturbing video surfaced online.
Other Pakistani media outlets like Dawn News and BOL News also reported the incident at that time with the same visuals.
Reports revealed that “The couple were reportedly forced to engage in intercourse, with the perpetrators threatening to gang-rape the woman if they did not comply. The woman was also forced to perform a strip-tease before the men, and was beaten for resisting their demands. Mirza had reportedly attempted to blackmail and extort the couple out of hundreds of thousands of rupees.”
In March 2022, The Express Tribune, and the Dawn were among many media outlets which reported that a sessions court in Islamabad sentenced Usman Mirza, the prime accused, along with Idris Qayyum Butt, Mohib Khan Bangash, Hafiz Ataur Rehman, and Farhan Shaheen, to life imprisonment.
The court also fined each of them Rs 2,00,000 based on digital evidence that played a key role in their conviction. However, two other accused, Umar Bilal Marwat and Rehan Hussain, were acquitted.
Conclusion
Thus it is clear that the claim is false. The video was from 2021 and the assaulter was not Rana Sikandar Hayat, the education minister of Punjab, Pakistani.
Result: False
Sources
Video by Fazi tech08, Dated July 9, 2021
Video by ARY News, Dated July 7, 2021
Video by Dawn News, Dated July 9, 2021
Video by BOL News, Dated July 18, 2021
Report by The Express Tribune, Dated March 25, 2022
Report by Dawn , Dated March 26, 2022
Report by The Friday Times, Dated March 25, 2022
Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
