Authors
Claim- Viral Image shows Imran Khan escaping through a ladder when Islamabad police reach Zaman park to arrest him.
Fact– Old Image of Hamza Shehbaz Sharif escaping his arrest during the NAB raid has gone viral in the name of Imran Khan.
The arrest order of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for allegedly misusing his PM office to purchase and sale state’s gifts from ‘Toshakhana’ ( state depository) has created political turmoil in Pakistan.
Reportedly, Imran Khan has fled by the time Islamabad Police went to his house to arrest him. According to one such report published in NDTV former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan jumped his residence’s wall and escaped to his neighbour’s house to avoid arrest.
Amid all these hundreds of images and videos are doing rounds on social media with various unverified claims related to this issue.
One such image of a person climbing up the wooden ladder reaching the terrace of the house is going viral among social media users. Many users are claiming that the viral image is of the former PM Imran Khan taken during his escape from arrest.
A verified Twitter user @nasirbuttuk who seems a supporter of Nawaz Sharif has posted the viral image and claimed that “Niazi running away from Zaman Park through the stairs”.
Another user @osintupdatee posted the image and wrote a caption that reads “Imran Khan has fleed when Islamabad police reach Zaman park to arrest him.” (sic)
The Archive of the viral post can be seen here
Fact Check
We run a reverse image search on the viral picture that led us to some old tweets carrying the same image from the years 2019 and 2022.
A tweet posted by a Pakistani Twitter handle @Saniya__Hassan on 22 May 2022 has tweeted an image similar to the viral picture. The user claimed that the picture is of Hamza Shehbaz sharif who escaped using a wooden ladder to avoid his arrest by NAB officer.
Taking a hint from here, we ran a keyword search for “Shehbaz sharif escape”, “NAB raid on Shehbaz Sharif” on google. This led us to a video posted on a verified YouTube channel called Duniya TV.
The video dated back to 7 April 2019 and captioned “ Hamza Shahbaz Sharif Running Through Wooden Stair On Roof After Nab Raid Lahore”
We also found a news report published on 05 April 2019, from the Pakistan-based English newspaper called Dawn. The report states that “a NAB team conducted a raid on the 96-H house, believed to be Shehbaz Sharif’s residence, allegedly because Hamza was “not cooperating” in the assets beyond means case”.
Conclusion
We thus conclude that the person in the viral image escaping through the ladder is a Pakistan politician Hamza Shehbaz Sharif and not Imran Khan
Result: Missing Context
Our Sources
Youtube Video Published by Duniya TV, on 7 April 2019
Media Report by Dawn report published on 05 April 2019
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