CLAIM
Viral visuals of news outlet reporting armed PTI supporter killed in Rawalpindi was innocent and abducted
RATING JUSTIFICATION
The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is false.
To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted reverse image and keyword searches to corroborate the claim.
Multiple PTI supporters have been sharing two visuals on social media platforms X and Facebook since August 11, 2026, purportedly showing screenshots from a news bulletin of Express Digital. They claimed that the alleged PTI worker who was recently killed in Rawalpindi was innocent and had been abducted two days before his death. However, the visuals are fake, and no such news was reported.
It should be mentioned that Express Digital is a platform that has been dormant for over a year.
A man was shot dead by law enforcement officials on Rawalpindi’s Mall Road on August 11, 2026, after he allegedly opened fire on a security patrol, injuring one official. The suspect, identified as Muhammad Hussain, son of Muhammad Baaz, was a resident of Khyber Agency. Police recovered a pistol, bullets, a political party flag, a cap, and a mobile phone from him. A case was registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act with the Crime Control Department, Rawalpindi, and further investigation is under way.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, speaking on news channels, identified the suspect as an “active member” of PTI and accused the party of pursuing “politics of violence”, pointing to its announced long march to Islamabad on September 27.
PTI denied any organisational link to the attacker. PTI Islamabad Regional President Amir Mughal rejected Tarar’s claims. Meanwhile, Shafi Jan, aide to the chief minister of KP, acknowledged that the attacker may have been a PTI supporter but said he held no party position and that it was unfair to link an individual act of violence to the entire organisation. The party demanded an independent judicial inquiry into the incident.
HOW IT STARTED
On August 11, a PTI supporter shared a visual on X featuring an Express Digital breaking news template and Hussain’s photograph. The Urdu text on the visual attributed a statement to Hussain’s mother, claiming that her son had been abducted two days earlier and was later killed in Rawalpindi.
The caption reads: “What kind of justice is this, and what kind of lawless state is this? In Rawalpindi, the police brutally killed this man and, to save their own skins, immediately pinned the blame on him, claiming he had opened fire on the security forces.”
The post accumulated 11,000 views.
The same screenshot was shared on Facebook by another PTI supporter with the following caption: “Express Digital News, drama exposed.”
The post gathered 1,200 likes.
The same day, another visual featuring the same Express Digital template also began circulating on X. The image, shared by a PTI supporter, carried the following text: “He wasn’t a terrorist; an innocent man was killed by mistake, police disclose.”
Meanwhile, the caption read: “Breaking: Rawalpindi Police, admitting their mistake, have declared the PTI worker innocent. An innocent worker was killed by mistake!”
The post racked up 43,000 views.
Another pro-PTI account shared the same screenshot on X with the following caption: “Breaking News: Who is responsible? Where have those who held the press conference gone now?”
The post received 2,900 views.
METHODOLOGY
A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and keen public interest in the incident.
The visuals used the name of the Express Digital platform, associated with Express News.
Keyword and reverse image searches were conducted to determine whether similar reports — linked to the alleged innocence and abduction of Hussain — were carried by Express News or other credible domestic media outlets, but no such news stories were found.
Investigating Express Digital’s Facebook and YouTube pages showed that they were dormant, with the last posts dated back to March 2025, after which the pages appear to have remained inactive.
Muhammad Haris, senior YouTube executive at Express News, confirmed the same, adding that it hadn’t published any such news of the sort.
Express News correspondent Khalid Mehmood also said that nothing of the sort was reported or heard of.
Furthermore, examining the visuals closely revealed several inconsistencies. First, the logo in the viral visuals differed from the original Express Digital logo, with ‘express’ written in uppercase in the former and in lowercase in the latter, while the text box for ‘digital’ is black in the former and white in the latter.
Second, the Urdu text used in the viral visuals appeared inconsistent with the channel’s usual graphic style. The font, formatting, and placement of the text appeared unusual, giving the impression that the text may have been digitally added to the visuals rather than being part of an original Express Digital graphic.
FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE
The claim that viral visuals show a media outlet reporting that the PTI supporter killed in Rawalpindi on Aug 11 was innocent and abducted before death is false.
The visuals are fake, and no such news has been reported by any media outlet.