Viral video of Islamabad police assaulting passengers at airport

RATING JUSTIFICATION

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

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted a Google reverse image search to trace the old footage and a keyword search to corroborate it.

Multiple users shared a video on social media platforms X and Facebook on August 11, 2026, allegedly showing the Islamabad police assaulting passengers at the airport. However, the clip is old from October 2025, when the police forcibly entered the National Press Club and assaulted media workers, along with protesters.

HOW IT STARTED

On August 11, an Indian propaganda account, based on its past posts, shared a video on X, alleging that it shows the police assaulting protesters at Islamabad airport.

The caption of the post read: “Islamabad airport. This behaviour of using force and violence against passengers by the Islamabad police is an open insult to human dignity. Those institutions that were created for the protection of the public have today themselves become a cancer for the public.”

The post gained 32,300 views.

An Afghan local media outlet, Daily Kabul News, also shared the same clip with the same caption, accumulating 31,100 views.

Times of Pakistan, a blog page, also posted the same clip on Facebook with the following caption: “Islamabad airport. The use of force and violence against passengers by the Islamabad police constitutes a blatant affront to human dignity. It raises a serious question about the entire system when the very institutions established to ensure public safety and protect the honour, lives, and property of the people resort to using force against them. The role of state institutions is to provide protection to the public, not to instil fear.”

The video was also widely shared by other users on X with the same claim, as seen here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and keen public interest in the matter.

A keyword search did not yield any recent such incident from any credible domestic media outlet.

A reverse image search was conducted to trace the source of the footage and yielded a video shared by Dawn News on its YouTube channel, dated October 2, 2025.

“Police arrest protesters against violence in Azad Kashmir,” reads the title.

The part featured in the viral clip starts at the 3:24-minute mark in the full video.

According to the video, police officials stormed the National Press Club (NPC) in Islamabad and arrested protesters who were demonstrating against the violence in Azad Kashmir at the time.

A further keyword search yielded a news report by Dawn, dated October 3, 2025, with the following headline: “Uproar after police rampage at capital’s press club”.

As per the news report, police barged into the NPC and tortured journalists present on the premises. The police officials, who entered the cafeteria in alleged pursuit of protesters, thrashed journalists, broke cameras and damaged NPC property.

The police’s raid on NPC was also reported by Geo News, dated October 2, 2025.

Additionally, the International Federation of Journalists and Digital Rights Foundation also released a report on the police raid and condemned it.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that a viral clip shows the Islamabad police assaulting passengers at the airport is false.

The video is from October 2, 2025 and shows Islamabad police thrashing protesters and media workers at the National Press Club.

EVIDENCE AND REFERENCES

Oct 2, 2025, Dawn News YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp3GmnsdBGE

Oct 3, 2025, Dawn News report:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1946165

Oct 2, 2025, Geo News report:
https://www.geo.tv/latest/626651-police-assault-journalists-after-storming-national-press-club

Oct 10, 2025, International Federation of Journalists report:
https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/article/pakistan-police-raid-press-club-and-assault-media-workers

Oct 2, 2025, Digital Rights Foundation report:
https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/journalists-beaten-as-islamabad-police-storm-national-press-club/