Old video from Rajasthan shared as protest rally in support of former Pak PM Imran Khan

By: Azra Ali
January 24 2024

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Screenshot of the viral post claiming that the visuals show supporters of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan protesting in Pakistan.

What is the claim?

A video showing a large group of people marching down a street and chanting slogans is being widely circulated on social media. The post claims that this footage depicts protests in Pakistan against the country's Supreme Court ruling, which disqualified former prime minister Imran Khan's party from participating in the upcoming general elections. 

A user on X (previously known as Twitter) shared this video, captioning it: “Long live Imran Khan, long live Qazi Faiz Isa. The people have delivered their verdict on the streets. Death to Qazi Faiz Isa. We reject these decisions (translated from Urdu)." This post garnered over 114,000 views on social media, and an archived version is available here. Similar posts have been widely shared, the archives of which can be accessed here and here.

The controversy arose after a bench of the Pakistan High Court, led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, upheld the Election Commission's decision to bar Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), from using its symbolic cricket bat emblem for the general elections scheduled for February 8, 2024. As reported by Reuters, the decision came after the PTI failed to conduct internal party elections, leading to the Supreme Court's subsequent endorsement. This prompted widespread protests from PTI supporters.

  Screenshots of the viral post circulating on social media.(Source: X/Facebook/ Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the video being circulated as evidence of these protests in Pakistan is actually from Rajasthan, India.

How did we verify this? 

The video features chants of “Karni Sena zindabad." The Karni Sena, a Rajput community organization, is primarily active in Rajasthan.

A reverse image search of a screenshot from the video led us to a news report by News18 Hindi that had published similar visuals in its report dated December 6, 2023. The article stated that protests and shutdowns were reported in the north Indian state of Rajasthan after the murder of the president of Karni Sena, Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi. He was shot dead at his residence on December 5, 2023, a report in The Hindu stated. His death sparked protests by his supporters demanding justice. 

The viral video is from one such protest held on December 6, 2023, in Udaipur, a city in Rajasthan. We found this by analyzing the stores and shops seen in the video, and we could geolocate a couple to a market named Bapu Bazar in Udaipur. We found many similarities between the now-viral video and the market on Google Street View. 

For example, we geolocated the store named ‘Sadri Wala & Company,’ which can be seen in the video at the timecode 0:12 seconds. We found that the board of the store also has its location: Bapu Bazar. According to our research, the store is located on Bapu Bazar main road in Udaipur. We can also see other similarities — the Sona Publicity store above Sadri Wala and the brick-colored windows on the first floor. 

Comparison of the store in the viral video and the store geolocated on Google Maps. (Source: X/GoogleMaps/Screenshot )

At the 0:15-second mark, the video shows another store, 'Stylo,' also traceable on Google Maps, along with two distinctive towers at the 0:16-second mark.

Geolocation showed us that the stores in the viral video are located in Udaipur’s Bapu Bazar. (Source: X/Google Maps/Screenshot)

This evidence conclusively places the video in Udaipur’s Bapu Bazar, not in Pakistan. 

The verdict

The video depicts people protesting and chanting slogans is from Bapu Bazar in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. It does not show Imran Khan's supporters protesting in Pakistan. Thus, we have marked this claim as false.