By: Toibah Kirmani
May 17 2023
2021 video from Guatemala falsely shared as pro-Imran Khan protests in Pakistan occupied Kashmir
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The video in question shows migrants clashing with Guatemalan soldiers.
Claim ID 763716b2
Context
Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was arrested by the country's anti-corruption bureau on May 9 triggering protests about its legality. Some also accused the country's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of being involved in the arrest, after Khan's accusations against a senior military officer and former armed forces chief. Khan was released from jail two days later after an intervention from the country’s Supreme Court.
Amid these events, a Twitter user named ‘Osint Updates’, shared a video that purported to show a large crowd trying to walk past police officials deployed on a street. The accompanying caption claimed that the visuals were from the Kashmir highway in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), and that thousands of protesters breached a police blockade and advanced towards Islamabad. Hashtags like #ImranKhanArrest and #PakistanCivilWar were added to the caption. The tweet received 15.7K views and 104 retweets.
In Fact
On conducting a reverse image search on the screengrabs used in the video, we found it dated back to January 18, 2021. The videos were posted by reputable organizations such as The Telegraph and The Hill, documenting an incident at the Guatemalan border.
Further examination and cross-referencing confirmed that the footage was from when Guatemalan police had formed ranks along a highway with the objective of preventing large groups of migrants from crossing to the United States.
According to the description added by Telegraph under the video, a caravan transporting around 9,000 migrants from Honduras was stopped from entering the country by Guatemalan soldiers, leading to a clash. “The soldiers, many wearing helmets and wielding shields and sticks, formed ranks across a highway to block the procession which was seeking to reach the US,” the description added.
Hence, the video in question has no connection with Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and Khan’s arrest.
Verdict
The video shared on Twitter does not depict an incident in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It is from January 18, 2021, showing an incident at the Guatemalan border. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.