Video of Afghan protests against Fazlur Rehman on his Kabul visit

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is misleading since the clip of Afghans protesting against the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief is nine years old.

To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team analysed the video of the protests, sourcing it and the demonstrations back to January 8, 2015.

HOW IT STARTED

 
On January 9, 2024, a 50-second clip of Afghan citizens marching against Maulana Fazlur Rehman was shared on social media platform X by a PTI supporter amid the JUI-F chief’s visit to Afghanistan. The post claimed the Afghan people called the JUI-F chief an “enemy of humanity”.

In the clip, many Afghans can be seen holding signs against Maulana Fazlur Rehman with some posters captioned: “Pakistani civil society! Why are you silent?”

At a later point, the clip also showed a poster of the JUI-F chief on fire while a man kicked at it.
 
The post was viewed more than 85,000 times and shared 3,800 times.
   
A post by another PTI supporter was viewed by more than 28,000 people.

Similarly, a separate post from a PTI supporter gained over 10,000 views.

Express News Senior Producer Shahid Saqlain also shared the clip, gaining over 55,000 views and 1,000 shares.

However, none of the posts examined attached a location or a city to the protests, only the country of Afghanistan.
 

METHODOLOGY

Seeking to determine the veracity of the protests’ clip, the iVerify Pakistan team conducted a keyword search using combinations of “Afghan”, “protest” and “Fazlur Rehman”.

Doing so led to a January 8, 2015, story by The Khaama Press News Agency with the headline: “Protesters ask govt not to allow Fazal-ur-Rehman to enter Kabul”

The agency describes itself as a “leading news outlet reporting from Afghanistan”.
 
According to the new report, “dozens of people, including civil society activists, participated in a rally to demonstrate against the visit of Pakistani religious cleric Mawlana Fazal-ur-Rehman to Kabul.”

An image used in the report showed a poster of the JUI-F chief with a cross on his face. This same poster can be glimpsed at the 20-second mark in the 50-second video.
 
A further keyword search yielded the following images from media company Getty Images (image 1 and image 2) and international news wire Reuters.

The first and third pictures show a poster of Rehman, with a cross on his face, on a wall. The captions describe the poster being defaced by demonstrators during a protest in Kabul on Jan 8, 2015.

Another element to note is how the cement blocks or bricks of the wall are placed in the area beside Rehman’s face. The building in the background and a white pillar beside the wall with blue graffiti are also common visual elements.

These same visual elements can be witnessed in the circulated video from the 29 to the 32-second marks.

However, since the team’s search did not yield any corroboration from an English-language news report, the investigation continued and the team searched for “Fazlur Rehman Afghanistan” with a time range set for Jan 1 and 31, 2015 on social media platform X.

The search yielded the following post by a user describing themselves as a former BBC journalist with a link to a BBC Urdu report.

The BBC Urdu report in turn was a pictorial piece of images from the Kabul protest on Jan 8, 2015 and featured the exact same imagery as the scenes witnessed in the video.

From the BBC report, the team found further Urdu-language news reports on the January 2015 protests by German media outlet Deutsche Welle and ARY News.

BACKGROUND

 
According to the news reports traced during the investigation, Rehman visited Afghanistan in January 2015 with a delegation of other politicians to discuss regional security.
 
Citizens in Kabul had protested against the visit, accusing the JUI-F chief of supporting the Afghan Taliban.

After nine years, Rehman visited Kabul again on Jan 7, 2024, with a delegation of 11 other JUI leaders to meet the Afghan Taliban leadership.
 
The agenda of the meeting was to discuss important matters, including the issue of the militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan group, as well as ending recent tensions and completing the restoration of Pak-Afghan relations.
 

CONCLUSION

 
The iVerify team has determined that the 50-second clip of the Afghan protests against the JUI-F chief is misleading as it shows old Kabul protests from Jan 8, 2015, rather than any current ones from January 2024.

Evidence and References

Jan 8, 2015 news report by Khaama Press:
https://www.khaama.com/protesters-ask-govt-not-to-allow-fazal-ur-rehman-to-enter-kabul-8928/

Getty image of protest:
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-afghan-civil-society-activist-throws-eggs-at-a-poster-of-news-photo/525294854

Getty image of protest:
https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detail/news-photo/afghanistanafghan-civil-society-members-trample-down-a-news-photo/461181510

Reuters image of protest:
https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/24-hours-in-pictures-idUSRTR4KQ70/

BBC Urdu picture piece of Jan 2015 Kabul protests:
https://www.bbc.com/urdu/multimedia/2015/01/150108_fazalur_rehman_ra

Jan 8, 2015 news report by DW:
https://www.dw.com/ur/%DA%A9%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%84-%D9%85%DB%8C%DA%BA-%D9%85%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%A7-%D9%81%D8%B6%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%DA%A9%DB%92-%D8%AE%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%81-%D9%85%D8%B8%D8%A7%DB%81%D8%B1%D9%87/a-18180467

Jan 9, 2015 news report by ARY News:
https://urdu.arynews.tv/%DA%A9%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%84-%D9%85%DB%8C%DA%BA-%D9%85%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%A7-%D9%81%D8%B6%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%DA%A9%DB%92-%D8%AE%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AA/

Dawn report on Rehman’s January 2024 Kabul visit:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1804321