Video of Punjab education minister assaulting couple for participating in PGC protests

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has reviewed this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team investigated the claim with a combination of keyword and reverse-image searches.

Posts from multiple users on social media on October 17, 2024, shared a video of a man assaulting a couple, claiming that they were being punished by Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat for participating in the protests against the alleged rape of a girl at a campus of the Punjab Group of Colleges (PGC). However, the video was from 2021 and did not feature the Punjab minister.

On Oct 15, the police clashed with hundreds of students who were protesting outside of PGC Campus 10 in Lahore as they expressed their anger over the alleged rape of a female student.

Initially, 28 students were injured as the police moved brutally with the Directorate of Public Instruction (Colleges), Punjab also suspending the registration of the college “till further orders”.

Later, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz declared that the alleged rape was “fabricated news” and blamed the opposition PTI for spreading propaganda on social media. PGC Director Agha Tahir and other office-holders termed the incident “baseless” as the victim and her family were yet to come forward with no first information report registered either.

HOW IT STARTED

On Oct 17, an X account called Nepal Correspondence, a digital news platform for “investigative journalism” according to its bio and which also appears to be anti-government based on their past posts, shared a video of a man harassing and assaulting a couple with several other people as bystanders inside a bedroom.

In the caption, the X page wrote, “Horrific visuals. Rana Sikandar Hayat, education minister in Maryam Nawaz illegal government went to a couple’s home to rape a woman. He beat the husband and pulled lady’s shirt so he can rape her. The couple participated in protests against the rape of Lahore PGC student.”

In the clip, the man can be heard telling the couple to take off their clothes while he continues to slap them.

The video received over 62,000 views and was shared 231 times.

A post with a similar claim and same video from an Indian account known for spreading propaganda and misinformation gained 3.6 million views.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was carried out to verify the claim regarding the video due to its high virality, the significant public interest in the PGC case and the serious nature of the allegation about the minister that held the potential to incite violence and cause harm.

It was observed that many X users commented in replies to the post that it was an old video from 2021 and the perpetrator was a man named Usman Mirza, not the Punjab education minister.

A keyword search for “Usman Mirza” and “torturing couple” yielded results from several news outlets reporting on the case of a man harassing and forcing a couple to strip in July 2021.

“One clip of the video shows a group of men with weapons, led by Usman, threaten the man and woman with physical harm and force them to engage in sexual activity,” said a Dawn.com report dated July 7, 2021, titled: “Islamabad police arrest culprit behind assault, torture of man and woman”.

In the thumbnail of a YouTube video dated July 7, 2021, posted by Dawn News, Usman Mirza can be seen hanging his arms around the couple.

In the video, the host explained the details of the case, the culprit and the other accomplices involved.

While their faces were blurred in the thumbnail, it was observed that the couple was wearing the same clothes as in the video under investigation.

Thumbnails by other YouTube news such as Haq Pakistan News corroborate with the overall appearance of the perpetrator and victims involved.

Furthermore, reverse-image searches also yielded many videos from July 2021 that showed Mirza and the couple wearing the same clothing as in the video being linked to the Punjab education minister.

A cursory look at Hayat’s profile on the Punjab Assembly website showed no resemblance in the facial features of the two men.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that a video shows Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikander harassing and assaulting a couple for participating in PGC protests against the alleged rape of a student is false.

The video is actually from July 2021 and is related to Islamabad’s Usman Mirza harassment case with nothing to do with the PGC protests or the Punjab education minister.

Evidence and References

July 7, 2021, Dawn News YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/eqbecGS7IoM?si=Tv-EFELFn4DFjTnF